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Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
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Thursday / December 19.
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    • Knicks

    By JOSH NEWMAN
    Special to ZAGSBLOG

    LeBronNEW YORK – Any and all notions that the Eastern Conference’s road to the NBA Finals doesn’t go through the Miami Heat have now evaporated.

    They evaporated in a flurry of late, big-game plays on both ends from LeBron James, every shot J.R. Smith missed in the fourth quarter and with the realization that Sunday’s 99-93 Heat victory at Madison Square Garden was No. 14 in a row for the reigning NBA champions. 

    “It was huge, it was our next game, it was our next challenge,” James said. “We’ve had a few this week. We had Memphis come into our building (on Friday), a very good team, one of the best teams in this league. Today, New York, one of the best teams in our league as well, so to come here, against a team that’s very good at home, who has played well at home and to get the win under the circumstances, to gut it out is good.”

    A pair of 20-point Knicks victories over the Heat on Nov. 2 and Dec. 6, respectively, feel like a lifetime ago. The Heat are 29 games over .500, seven games ahead of the rest of the Eastern Conference, James appears to be completely locked in and the Knicks (35-21), now 7.5 games behind the Heat in the East, continue to meander as the regular season begins to wind down.

    “Our guys showed some more mental toughness and resolve in the second half,” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said after his team overcame a 16-point first half deficit. “In the second half, we just focused on playing our game and competing and trying to dig back into it and make plays in the end. We had so many plays going down the stretch, a lot of them on the defensive end.”

    UCLA

    UCLA coach Ben Howland confirmed the seemingly obvious Saturday when he said that Shabazz Muhammad will enter the NBA Draft after his freshman season.

    “I knew going into this deal that this was a one-year deal and it should be,” Howland told Fox Sports after the 6-foot-6 Muhammad went for 18 points, including two key foul shots with 9 seconds remaining, as UCLA upset No. 11 Arizona, 74-69, at Pauley Pavillion.

    “He’s a top-five pick. When you have that going for you, it’s absolutely the right thing for him. That was absolutely his last game in Pauley Pavilion. I know that, he knows that, we all know that. We want the season to go as long as possible for him.”

    Andrew Wiggins, Articles, Kansas

    Andrew Wiggins will begin his official visit to Kansas Sunday and is expected to be on hand for Monday’s game in which the four KU seniors play their final home game against Texas Tech.

    The 6-foot-8 Wiggins is the No. 1 prospect in the Class of 2013 and has now visited Kentucky and Florida State, with a trip to North Carolina for the Duke game set for Saturday.

    Wiggins is coming off a 40-point performance Saturday when Huntington (W.V.) Prep dismantled Canadian Club team United Leadership Academy, 134-61, at Boyd County Middle School in Ashland, Ky.

    Wiggins’s parents, Mitchell and Marita Payne, will trip with him to Kansas as they did to Kentucky, which is critical in the recruiting process.

    Articles, Providence, St. John's

    http://web.sny.tv/media/video.jsp?content_id=25652257


    By BRENDAN McGAIR

    Special to ZAGSBLOG

    PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Steve Lavin has a message for the Big East – one regarding the Providence College squad that squeezed out a last-second 62-59 win over the D’Angelo Harrison-less St. John’s Red Storm Saturday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center.

    “They are the hottest team in our league other than Georgetown,” was the tip of the cap extended by Lavin, whose team’s NCAA Tournament chances took a major hit with the loss.

    Given up for dead after ending January with a 2-7 conference record, PC reversed its fortunes in February with five wins in six opportunities. With the calendar flipped to college’s basketball most pulsating and heart-stopping month, the Friars kicked off March by evening their Big East mark at 8-8 – same as St. John’s and Cincinnati.

    Knicks

    http://web.sny.tv/media/video.jsp?content_id=25652295

    GREENBURGH, N.Y. — The red-hot Miami Heat come into Madison Square Garden for a nationally televised game Sunday afternoon, and the Knicks know they have a tremendous opportunity to make a statement that they are still a factor in the East.

    Yes, the Knicks have already beaten the LeBrons twice this season by 20 points each, but that was then and this is now.

    Miami (42-14) has won 13 straight games and will be looking to prove that those first two losses weren’t representative of how they can really play against the Knicks (35-20), a team they lead by 6 1/2 games in the Eastern Conference standings.

    “They know that we got them here and then embarrassed them in their house, so we expect them to come in fired up,” center Tyson Chandler said Saturday.

    “They’re the champs for a reason. They’re not laying down to anybody and it should be a dogfight.”

    Articles, Kentucky

    GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Marcus Camby and John Calipari maintain a close relationship after all these years, but Camby admits it’s “a tough pill to swallow” that his former coach is now leading the team that beat UMass in the 1996 Final Four.

    Asked Saturday after Knicks practice for his top March Madness memories, Camby said: “Probably the run we had going all the way to the Final Four and eventually losing to Kentucky. And now fast forward 20 years and Calipari’s coaching Kentucky, so it’s a tough pill for me to swallow.”

    UMass’ 1996 Final Four appearance was vacated when it was discovered that Camby had accepted a reported $40,000 in cash and gifts from an agent. 

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