For the first time since his meteoric rise to stardom, Knicks hype-child Jeremy Lin looked like a basketball player from Harvard.
Of course, that shouldn’t take anything away from his amazing story. The Heat simply is shutting everything down these days — even feel-good, made-for-Disney stories like Lin’s. Never mind the opponent, the enormity of the game, the schedule or whatever, the Heat is crashing through the regular season at its halfway point and Thursday at AmericanAirlines Arena was just more of the same.
The Heat’s most anticipated game of the season had the atmosphere of the postseason but, in the end, Miami celebrated another lopsided victory, defeating the rival New York Knicks 102-88. The Heat’s Big 3 combined to score 67 points.
Miami (27-7) has now won eight straight games by double-digits and heads into the All-Star break with the best record in the NBA.
As for Lin, he was baptized by fire in the ways of the Heat’s defense. Linsanity was stuffed into a straight jacket and Lin had just as many turnovers as points, eight. He was held to 1 of 11 shooting from the field.
“It’s hard to be Peter Pan everyday,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. “He just had an off day.”
Said Lin: “They did a great job of making me uncomfortable.”
D’Antoni described the Heat’s speed on defense as a shock to the system for the Lin and the Knicks (17-18), which is still trying to gel as a team after the return of Carmelo Anthony and the additions of Baron Davis, J.R. Smith and, of course, Lin. The Heat outscored the Knicks by 19 points when he was in the game.
“They’re some of the best pick-and-roll defenders,” D’Antoni said. “The first time you see it, the speed is overwhelming.”
Indeed, the Heat forced 15 turnovers in the first half. Lin and Amar’e Stoudemire had six each, the most for any Heat opponents in a half this season. The Heat forced 19 turnovers overall with 12 steals and 10 blocks. LeBron James had five steals (a season high) to go along with 20 points and nine rebounds and eight assists.
Then there was Joel Anthony, the Heat’s no-name center, who had one of his best games of the season despite not scoring. He had five blocks, tying a season high set in the last victory against the Knicks, and was instrumental in helping shut down the Knicks’ pick-and-roll game.
“Joel Anthony is one of the cornerstones of what we do,” Spoelstra said.
Chris Bosh led the Heat with 25 points, shooting 11 of 17 from the field to go along with eight rebounds. Bosh’s feather-light jumper with 8:41 left in the game put the Heat up by 10 points. Wade had 22 points, making 10 of 22 attempts. He had five assists to go along with five rebounds.
The Knicks cut the Heat’s lead to two points near the beginning of the second half but the Heat then pulled away. Anthony rejected Lin from close range with 3:06 left in the third quarter and Battier turned it into a three-pointer on the other end. Anthony then absorbed an offensive foul by Carmelo Anthony on the next possession and the sold out arena offered a deafening standing ovation.
Anthony led the Knicks with 19 points on 7 of 20 shooting. J.R. Smith had 14 points off the bench. The Knicks shot 39.2 percent from the field.