On the Thursday night NBA slate, the New York Knicks defeated the Miami Heat 106-104 after RJ Barrett bounced back from a late benching with 30 points. Isaiah Hartenstein made three big plays on both ends of the floor in the final minutes.
Barrett played about five minutes in the fourth quarter in the Knicks’ 129-123 loss to the Lakers on Tuesday. This time, he played 41 minutes, including the whole fourth quarter.
“The thing that I love about RJ is I always believe he’s going to bounce back, and I saw it immediately the next day after the Laker game,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “I said we’ll be fine because I know, like, it’s important to RJ, so I knew he’d come out aggressive.”
A Heat foul was converted into a turnover by Spoelstra’s correct challenge of the call. The potential winning 3-point shot by Tyler Herro bounced off the rim, however.
Julius Randle contributed 23 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists for the Knicks to help them pull within two games of Miami for sixth place in the Eastern Conference. It was a 17-point night for Quentin Grimes.
NBA SCORES & NEWS: RJ Barrett, New York Knicks & Miami Heat Updates
A three-point lead was secured with 33 seconds left when Hartenstein dunked. In the wake of Herro’s 3-point attempt flying out, the Heat got a steal and another opportunity to tie, but Hartenstein knocked away a pass, and Randle slammed it all alone for 106-101. Strus’ 3-pointer cut the Heat’s deficit to two before Herro’s corner miss.
“I thought we had a good look,” Herro said. “It was still a tough shot, but it was a good shot. Missed it, and get back to the drawing board.”
Herro contributed 25 points, while Strus scored 17 points for the Heat. Adebayo had 32 points and nine rebounds for the Heat.
NBA SCORES & NEWS: RJ Barrett, New York Knicks & Miami Heat Updates
Despite missing point guard Jalen Brunson due to an illness unrelated to COVID-19, the Knicks snapped a two-game losing streak. Barrett undoubtedly stepped up in his absence.
“I feel like I hadn’t really had aggression from start to finish in a while, so today I just tried to do that,” Barrett said.
In the third quarter, the Knicks went on an 11-0 run, extending their lead to 62-48 as the Heat missed their first seven shots. Afterward, Adebayo made a jumper to spark a 21-4 Miami rally, culminating in Kyle Lowry’s go-ahead 3-pointer after missing his first seven shots. New York regained control with another 11-0 spurt in the third quarter.
“We just couldn’t put them away. Any time we got a little bit of a lead, we couldn’t put them away. They came right back,” Heat veteran Udonis Haslem said. “That’s a tribute to their resilience, but also, we’ve got to understand that we’ve got to play off misses. We can’t keep taking the ball out of the basket and come down and try to match people shot for shot.”