Kyle Lowry finished with 18 points, going 3-for-6 from beyond the arc in 30 minutes off the bench.
NEW YORK — Sixteen days ago, the Miami Heat were facing elimination and down three with less than three minutes left in the final Eastern Conference Play-In game. Now, they have a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals and have taken home-court advantage away from the New York Knicks with a 108-101 victory at Madison Square Garden on Sunday.
It may just be that the Heat are built for the playoffs, where they can focus on one opponent, play slow and execute their game plan on both ends of the floor.
“We have a team that’s made for situations where we can grind it out,” Kyle Lowry said after coming up big down the stretch in Game 1. “We know where the ball needs to go, where we want the ball to be. And on the defensive side, we know how we want to play, no matter what. There’s no kind of confusion. Everybody’s just on the same page.”
Here are some notes, numbers and film …
1. A great decoy
Jimmy Butler was the Heat’s star in the first round, averaging 37.4 points as they beat the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in five games. And he was Miami’s leader on Sunday, scoring 25 while playing a game-high 43:27.
But the last of those 25 came after Butler suffered a nasty-looking right ankle injury as he was fouled on a drive with 5:05 left in the fourth quarter. After a timeout, he made his two free throws, but was clearly hobbled and the Heat led by just three.
Jimmy Butler playing through sprain indicative of Heat willpower
It was, seemingly, an opportunity for New York to take advantage. And Jalen Brunson scored on the ensuing trip down the floor, slicing through two defenders for a floater in the paint. But the Knicks then went scoreless (with four turnovers) on their next seven possessions. And with that, the game was lost.
Butler limped around and barely touched the ball on offense over those final five minutes.
“Great decoy,” Kyle Lowry quipped afterward.
On the other end of the floor, the Knicks didn’t attack him, despite his clear lack of mobility. In fact, there were two straight possessions where they set screens that allowed him to get off the ball.
First, instead of RJ Barrett (defended by Butler) setting a screen for Brunson, Brunson handed the ball off to Barrett, allowing Caleb Martin to switch onto the ball and Butler to chill in the corner as Barrett threw it away …
On the ensuing possession, Barrett had the ball and Butler in front of him. But Josh Hart came from the opposite side of the floor to set a screen, allowing Lowry to switch onto the ball. Barrett tried to attack Lowry, but had his drive stuffed under the basket …
Butler’s status going forward will obviously be the biggest topic regarding this series over the next 48 hours.
“You just don’t know with ankle sprains,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I don’t even know if we’ll know more by tomorrow. We’ll just have to see. It’ll be a waiting game. But he did not want to come out of the game.”
2. Lowry comes up big
While the Knicks seemingly could have done a better job with the opportunity they were given, credit the Heat for withstanding Butler’s injury and pulling out Game 1 in a tough environment.
“Our group has learned to compartmentalize,” Spoelstra said, “and focus on the task at hand.”
Gabe Vincent hit the biggest shot of the night, a pull-up, contested 3 that put the Heat up six with 4:25 left. And then Lowry really took the reins, running the offense (with Butler stationed in the weak-side corner), hitting a big jumper of his own, and coming up with big stops like the one against Barrett above.
Jimmy Butler: Heat 'believe we can be something special'
Lowry has had moments this season where he’s looked his age (37). But he’s played some of his best basketball here in the playoffs, including Sunday’s 18-point, six-assist performance.
“This is probably the healthiest he’s been,” Spoelstra said. “He’s an absolute warrior. He’s been able to do some amazing things, even on one leg, this year. But those five weeks where he was able to step away and just really focus on getting himself healthy for these kind of moments was critical. But he’s a winner. He’s just an absolute winner, and when you need him the most, that’s when he’s going to show up.
“This is all that Kyle wants at this point in his career, these kind of opportunities in the playoffs.”
“This place was amazing,” Lowry added. “It was electric. And as a basketball player, you want to play in the Mecca. You want to play in this type of atmosphere.”
3. The other ankle
The Knicks probably don’t have much sympathy for Butler and the Heat, because they were without their regular-season leading scorer in Game 1. Julius Randle, who re-injured his left ankle in Game 5 against Cleveland on Wednesday, went through a pretty intense workout a little more than two hours before game time. But the Knicks kept him out of the series opener, with Obi Toppin starting in his place.
The Knicks did get Quentin Grimes back from a two-game absence, but still played just eight guys. And though Toppin made more than half of the team’s 3-pointers on Sunday (see below), they closed with Immanuel Quickley on the floor instead.
Randle originally sprained his ankle against the Heat on March 29. He also had one of his biggest games of the season against this opponent, scoring 43 points in the Knicks’ win in Miami earlier in March. But he was not at his best in the first round, when the Knicks were much better with him off the floor.
So there will be updates to monitor with both teams before Game 2 on Tuesday (7:30 ET, TNT).
4. Make-or-miss league
With Brunson leading the way (his 20 points in the paint were tied for his season high), the Knicks scored 62 points in the paint on Sunday, tied for fifth most the Heat have allowed this season (90 total games). The last time they allowed as many was their Play-In loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
But three is greater than two, and New York shot a dismal 7-for-34 (21%) from 3-point range. Toppin was 4-for-11 and everybody else was 3-for-23, with Brunson going 0-for-7.
Heat shooting again the difference as they steal Game 1
“There were key moments in the game where you need to finish strong and be strong, and that starts with me,” the Knicks’ point guard said afterward. “Today I was horrific. Very uncharacteristic of me and this one is on me. I’ve got to get better.”
The Heat (who were the best 3-point shooting team in the first round) were just 13-for-39 (33%) from beyond the arc, but still outscored the home team by 18 points from deep. And with that, teams are 335-84 (.800) this season when they’ve made at least six more 3s than their opponent.
5. Kevin Love: three touchdown passes, zero interceptions
The Knicks led by 12 points in the second quarter and by nine early in the third. But it then turned with a 24-7 Heat run. Kevin Love scored six points on the run, but more impressive were the six points he assisted on.
They were all layups off of glorious outlet passes from under the Knicks’ basket …
Kevin Love outlet passes x 3. pic.twitter.com/hcHisH5PJ0
— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) April 30, 2023
“That’s such an incredible skill,” Spoelstra said. “There’s not many guys in this association that can throw it 90 feet, much less see the play happen. And then on time, on target.”
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John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
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