By JOSH NEWMAN
Special to ZAGSBLOG
NEW YORK – With Amar’e Stoudemire (lacerated left hand), Iman Shumpert (torn left ACL, lateral meniscus) and Jeremy Lin (slightly torn left meniscus) all on the shelf for the Knicks on Thursday evening, it was crucial that certain guys stepped up in Game 3 of their first round playoff series against the Miami Heat.
With Landry Fields and Steve Novak getting starting nods and J.R. Smith assured of heavy minutes, the Knicks didn’t get nearly the production they needed to turn this into a series in falling to the Heat, 87-70.
The Knicks, now down 3-0 and facing a sweep on Sunday afternoon back at MSG, set an NBA record for playoff futility with the loss, dropping their 13th straight postseason game. They haven’t won a playoff game since April 29, 2001.
What kind of night was it? Smith (5-for-18, 12 points) had one of those cold nights you always fear he’ll have, Fields (0-for-5 after halftime) was missing in action in the second half and Novak (zero points) never got going in a spot-start with the regular rotation decimated.
“We couldn’t find it, their defense was awfully good,” Knicks interim head Mike Woodson said. “Tonight, we played one side of the ball all night long, which was ridiculous.”
Neither team lit the world on fire on Thursday evening, but for a while, the Knicks looked like they would do enough to cut that 0-2 series deficit in half.
Fields opened the game 3-for-3 for nine points and Smith, despite his shooting woes, was making up for it with hustle and some stingy defense. That was going on while Novak was blanketed by the Heat defense as he took just two shots for the game.
Smith in particular had one of those maddening nights you worry about him having. His game has always been classified as taking the good with the bad. Thursday, it was more of the bad as he had open looks, but just couldn’t get them to go.
“Tonight, we definitely beat ourselves, that’s the most frustrating part” Smith said. “If I get open, I’m gonna take the shot. If I don’t, I’m trying to get between guys, trying to find my teammates and trying to make plays.”
The defensive intensity was there for much of the night, as the Heat were held to just 58 points and 38.8 percent shooting through three quarters. However, the Knicks needed more offense on a night where Carmelo Anthony was not going to do it alone as he did more than once in the month of April.
Anthony is not exempt from the criticism that Novak, Smith and Fields have received as he finished with 22 points, but on 7-for-23 shooting as part of a 31.9 percent shooting night for the Knicks.
As was the case with his teammates, Anthony never found a rhythm and never really got comfortable. He shot just 2-for-7 while playing the entire opening quarter, which turned into 4-for-12 at halftime. This series as a whole is going to be a forgettable one for a player who came into this postseason with a lot to prove. Through three games, Anthony has shot 22-for-64 and hasn’t shot better in any one game than the 12-for-26 he put up in Game 2.
What all of this poor shooting and frustration has added up to is the further realization that this particular group of players, even if its franchise power forward and best on-ball defender were healthy, is not equipped to deal with a title-contending outfit like the Heat.
“We make our stake playing defense, Shane (Battier) was our player of the game tonight. He did an unbelievable job on Melo,” LeBron James said. “We just made sure we were behind him and communicated with him. We just wanted to contest and make it tough on the rest of them.”
**For Video, Notes & Quotes from NBA.com, click here.
Photo: Miami Herald
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