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Heat-Knicks: 56k | 300k |
"I felt good shooting the ball tonight and this was a game that we didn't let slip away during the fourth quarter in which we were going back and forth," said Jones, who made 9-of-17 shots, including 5-of-7 3-pointers.
The Knicks held a 76-75 lead with 3:54 remaining before Grant scored six of his seven points in a game-ending 10-1 run to help the Heat improve their all-time record in New York to just 8-27.
The win also gave the Heat victories over both New York area teams on consecutive nights. Miami routed New Jersey 85-64 on Friday. This was the Heat's first victory in three tries against the Knicks this season.
"After getting beat twice the way we did against the Knicks, we came in wanting to win this game," Jones said. "We pinpointed what we had to do and executed down the stretch. We made our shots and played good defense in the fourth."
New York native Lamar Odom had 19 points and nine rebounds and Caron Butler scored 17 points as the Heat won for just the second time in their last eight road games.
Michael Doleac scored 18 points and Penny Hardaway added 16 for the Knicks, who had their three-game home winning streak snapped. The starters struggled and actually were outscored by the bench, 39-38.
"I just had a lot of easy layups and open shots tonight," Doleac said. "I was rolling off the picks and I was hitting my shots tonight."
Allan Houston scored 11 points but sat out most of the fourth quarter with a bad right knee while backcourt mate Stephon Marbury finished with just four on 2-of-11 shooting.
Butler, Jones and Odom proved to be tough matchups for counterparts Houston, Kurt Thomas and Keith Van Horn, who all seemed a step slower. As a result, Knicks coach Lenny Wilkens decided to use a smaller, quicker lineup and relied heavily on his bench.
"Tonight it was a situation where it felt like I was hurting us," Houston said. "I felt like I was playing on one leg out there I felt like I was hurting us more on defense and when I did get open shots I couldn't get any lift."
New York's reserve unit remained productive despite the absence of guard Shandon Anderson, who had his streak of 543 consecutive games played end Friday. Anderson was not with the team Saturday because of migraine headaches.
"We're (reserves) always ready to play and that is our job to bring energy off the bench in which we did tonight," Hardaway said. "And the only thing that didn't go right was winning the game."
New York began the fourth with four reserves and Marbury. Wilkens stayed with that lineup for nearly five minutes, and Houston and Dikembe Mutombo didn't play in the fourth quarter.
The game also provided a matchup between New York playground legends Marbury and Miami point guard Rafer Alston, who finished with eight points and seven assists.
