NEW YORK \u2013 When it comes to slumps, skids and defeats in droves, it\u2019s as if the logic for the losses is without limitation.<\/p>\n
Sometimes it\u2019s death by 3-pointers. Sometimes it\u2019s an opposing hot hand. Sometimes one bad stretch doing the damage.<\/p>\n
Sunday night, in falling for the seventh time in eight games with a 132-125 loss to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden, it was all of the above.<\/p>\n
For extended stretches, the Knicks could not miss from beyond the arc, closing 20 of 38<\/p>\n
For an entire night, Jalen Brunson set the tone, the Knicks guard closing with 47 points.<\/p>\n
And for the second consecutive game a rough patch at the close of the third quarter proved too much to overcome, just as it did in Friday night\u2019s loss to the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n
So back to Kaseya Center for one more game before Christmas with a 15-14 record, only Tuesday night\u2019s game against the Toronto Raptors before a two-way holiday break that feels like a lump of coal at the moment.<\/p>\n
While the Heat got 28 points and 20 rebounds from Kel\u2019el Ware, who shot 5 of 7 on 3-pointers, as well as 22 points from Norman Powell and 23 from Jaime Jaquez Jr., there wasn\u2019t enough in support.<\/p>\n
In addition to Brunson\u2019s 47, the Knicks also got 24 points from Mikal Bridges.<\/p>\n
Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night\u2019s game:<\/p>\n
1. Game flow: The Heat led 37-30 after the first period, with the Knicks coming back to take a 66-62 lead into halftime.<\/p>\n
The Knicks pushed their lead to nine in the third, the Heat climbed back within one, before New York moved to a 105-99 edge going into the fourth.<\/p>\n
As was the case with Friday night\u2019s loss in Boston, a rough patch to end the third led to ongoing issues in the fourth, with New York with 9:50 to play taking its first double-digit lead of the night, at 111-100.<\/p>\n
But a Ware 3-pointer and a pair of Jaquez free throws got the Heat within 120-118 with 3:12 to play.<\/p>\n
The rally then stalled, with a Bridges 3-pointer making it 125-118 with 2:15 to play, later drawing a three-shot foul on Powell with 1:34 to play that also was ruled a flagrant foul, effectively ending it.<\/p>\n
2. The big thing: Even with the Knicks opening with a smaller lineup, with Josh Hart opening at power forward and Mitchell Robinson playing off the bench, Spoelstra stayed big, with Ware again starting.<\/p>\n
That paid early dividends, with Ware with 10 points in his opening stint, including a 2-of-2 start on 3-pointers a game after shooting 6 of 7 on 3-pointers in Boston.<\/p>\n
Ware\u2019s start was part of the Heat\u2019s 6-of-8 start on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
Ware was up to 14 points and nine rebounds by halftime.<\/p>\n
It was easier for Spoelstra to stay big with Tyler Herro again out with his toe contusion.<\/p>\n
3. Powell comes around: A game after closing 1 of 11 on 3-pointers in Friday night\u2019s loss in Boston, Powell this time came around with his 3-point stroke, up to 22 points through three quarters.<\/p>\n
Powell extended his streak of games scoring in double figures to 27 in a row, dating to last season with the Clippers. His career-best such streak is 35.<\/p>\n
4. Brunson burner: Brunson was up to 39 points through three periods.<\/p>\n
That already had him tied with teammate Karl-Anthony Towns for the second most against the Heat this season.<\/p>\n
The most against the Heat this season entering the night had been 42 by Zach LaVine in the Sacramento Kings\u2019 Dec. 6\u00a0 victory at Kaseya Center.<\/p>\n
Brunson previously scored 37 against the Heat on Oct. 26 in a Knicks loss in Miami, in his only previous appearance against the Heat this season.<\/p>\n
5. The 3 D: It\u2019s not as if the Heat\u2019s 3-point defense has been off this season, it just has felt that way these last two games.<\/p>\n
On Friday night in Boston, it was the Celtics pulling away by converting 10 of 15 3-pointers in that decisive four quarter.<\/p>\n
This time, it was the Knicks standing 15 of 25 from beyond the arc midway through the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Part of it still is Ware often playing dropped defense. Much of it is just opponents making shots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 When it comes to slumps, skids and defeats in droves, it\u2019s as if the logic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,1263,21,9,11,10,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-77558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-miami-heat","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-news","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}