Crawford Plays 52 Pickup as Knicks Beat Heat

Led by Crawford’s spectacular career-high 52-point explosion, the Knicks cooled the Heat 116-96 in what may have been the New Yorkers’ best performance of the season. “I thought we were rolling pretty nicely on all cylinders,” forward David Lee smiled in the elated post-game locker room. “But it makes it a lot easier when one guy simply can’t miss.”

Crawford, at one point, swooshed 16 shots in a row, something no player has done in the course of a single game for the last ten years. (Shaq did it over two games.) JC had only 3 points in a relatively quiet first quarter -- and Coach Isiah Thomas took him out of the game with 6:57 still to go and the result no longer in doubt. So he scored 49 of his points in a very brief, and unbelievably hot, burst that amounted to about two and a half quarters.

“Fifty two points on 30 shots,” an impressed Thomas shook his head. “Jamal was very efficient. The best thing was that he never really go out of character.” Or got the rest of the team out of its natural flowing rhythm.

Au contraire, “we just tried to get him the basketball in a position where he could score,” said Thomas. “(Point guard Stephon) Marbury was great at reading the situation.” “We just tried some good screens for him,” added Lee. “And Jamal did the rest.”

And did it every way possible, too: long catch-and-shoot jumpers, parking-lot three-s under heavy defensive pressure, off-balance “J”-s off the dribble, triple pump drives, funky reverses, you name it. It was downright Zen-like. During a third-quarter time-out, Thomas told him to “stay in the quiet, peaceful place you’re in right now. Jamal told me the game felt really slow to him. I told him to keep it that way.”

“It felt good,” said Crawford. “My teammates did a great job of recognizing and giving me good looks. You just kind of zone out -- I got lost in the game. It seemed a while since I missed but I didn’t know the exact number. Steph saw it in the second quarter. He sees it coming. He just told me ‘you are hot’.”

Unbelievable as his performance was, Crawford was far from the lone hero. Jerome James, subbing for Curry, had a great start against Shaq -- he is big and physically strong enough to be a good match-up on the Bionic Man -- setting the tone for a fine all-around Knicks performance. Marbury, penetrating and dishing the ball beautifully, had 13 assists without playing a single second in the last quarter. It may have been his best “pure point guard” performance ever.

Lee, often playing a devastatingly effective two-man game with Crawford, had his 23d double double of the season with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Channing Frye shot well and was very active overall (16 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block). Rampaging rookie Renaldo Balkman had 10 points and 8 rebounds in just 14 minutes of playing time.

The Heat led 33-27 after one quarter, but Crawford’s sudden burst propelled the Knicks to a 38-16 second period, putting game effectively out of reach. Only the margin of victory remained in question from then on, as the Knicks lead reached 25 several times.

For one night at least, it was as if the Knicks didn’t even miss Curry. “We’ve had a lot of -- too much -- experience playing without key people in the lineup,” explained Frye. “So we’re learning to adjust.”

Most important, the big win kept the Knicks alive in the playoff race right in the middle of a killer stretch of their schedule. “It felt good, but if you score like that and lose it’s all for naught,” said Crawford. “We are very aware of where we are. We needed to get this victory.”