MIAMI – The running has been relentless. For that, the Miami Heat have been rewarded in the scoring column.
The rebounding and the defense haven’t been. Because of that, now consecutive losses for Erik Spoelstra’s team and a middling 7-6 record.
Defenseless as they were in Wednesday night’s home loss to an undermanned Cleveland Cavaliers roster, and again punished at critical rebounding junctures, it added up to a 140-132 NBA Cup loss Friday night to the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
“We understand what it is,” Spoelstra said of his team’s shortcoming. “So now we’re going to get to work. We just know what we have to correct. And it needs to be done.”
It was the highest-scoring game between the teams in the Heat’s 38 seasons, the fourth consecutive game the Heat have allowed at least 130 points.
Whether it was Karl-Anthony Towns going for 39 points or Mitchell Robinson dominating the offensive glass for New York, the Heat lacked ample answers inside, particularly on the boards, an ongoing theme in losses this season.
“It’s costing us games now,” Spoelstra said. “That’s where we are and we’ve said it enough, that we have to fix it. We’re being stubborn about it, the things that we need to do better. I think we’re fully – I feel like we’re fully – capable of doing it. Is it easy? Winning is not easy in this league.
“The staff, we’re going to get to work, we’ll find out what’s what. And we have to correct.”
Norman Powell led the Heat with 38 points, with Jaime Jaquez Jr. adding 23.
In support of Towns’ early domination, the Knicks got a career-high 36 points from Landry Shamet and 24 from Jordan Clarkson, as well as a 12-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist triple-double from Josh Hart.
The teams meet again Monday night at Kaseya Center.
“Obviously, KAT had the big first half and a lot of attention was drawn to him,” Jaquez said. “But that doesn’t mean those other guys can’t play. We got to take and handle business. We weren’t able to accomplish that tonight and we look to be better Monday.”
Five Degrees of Heat from Friday night’s game:
1. Game flow: The Heat led 35-32 after the first quarter, despite 18 points in the period from Towns.
The Knicks then put together a 46-point second period to go up 78-68 at halftime, with Towns up to 31 points at that stage.
The pace and 3-point shooting were frenetic to the point that both teams reached 100 points with 3:20 still left in the third period, a period that ended with the Knicks up 110-104.
Later, a 10-0 Knicks run gave New York a 120-106 lead, leading to a Spoelstra timeout with 9:29 to play.
“I think the game and our urgency defensively in the second half would have been good enough with better rebounding and taking care of the ball at key moments, at swing moments,” Spoelstra said.
2. Limited exposure: While the game was the Heat’s lone nationally televised appearance over their first 36 games (with Wednesday night’s visit by the Golden State Warriors removed from ESPN’s schedule), the Prime audience hardly got prime Heat-Knicks when it came to star appeal.
The Heat for the fifth consecutive game were without center Bam Adebayo due to the toe sprain sustained in the Nov. 5 road loss to the Denver Nuggets.
That is with Tyler Herro yet to return from September ankle surgery. The Heat initially offered an eight-week timetable for that recovery, with Friday marking eight weeks from the procedure on the 2025 All-Star guard.
The Knicks were without guard Jalen Brunson due to the ankle sprain sustained in their previous game, Wednesday night’s loss to the Orlando Magic.
In addition, the Knicks in the first quarter lost forward OG Anonuby for the night with a hamstring strain, putting his status in doubt for Monday night’s rematch.
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3. Glue guy: Powell continues to play as the Heat’s offensive bedrock.
The guard acquired in the offseason from the Clippers at the nominal cost of Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson now has scored at least 20 points in nine of his first 10 appearances with the Heat and in each of his last eight.
In addition, Powell now has converted at least one 3-pointer in 24 consecutive games, dating to last season with the Clippers.
“I care about the win,” Powell said. “It doesn’t matter how much I score, what happens if we come home with an L. I’m not a stats guy. I want Ws. So it’s more about what I got to do better. I made some mistakes defensively and I have to be one of the guys to help rebound.”
4. The Cup: The game was the second of four in pool play for the Heat in the NBA Cup, the league’s in-season tournament, still with Cup matchups next Friday in Chicago and then Nov. 26 at home against the Bucks.
Now at 1-1 in poll play after a previous victory over the Charlotte Hornets, victories in those final remaining Cup contests will be necessary for any chance for the Heat to advance, and even then with the point-differential tiebreaker to come into play to see if they play on.
All preliminary-round games also count in the regular-season standings.
If the Heat do not advance to the conference-semifinal knockout round, one home game and one road game will be added to their schedule between Dec. 11 and Dec. 15.
5. Haslem says: With Friday night’s game on Prime, it allowed Heat executive and Prime studio analyst Udonis Haslem to chime in on the Heat’s new approach.
Haslem practiced earlier in the week with the Heat at Kaseya Center.
“I think, for me, Heat culture is about sacrificing, not knowing what the end result is going to be, but you do it anyway, because you understand that you have your heart in the right place,” the former Heat captain said when former Heat coach Stan Van Gundy asked him to explain the Heat’s culture. “When I look at this team, the sacrifice started in training camp. What they’re doing now, the work they put in behind the scenes, it’s no coincidence they’re running up and down, because the work had been in training camp.
“We’re talking about a team who emphasized getting the ball to the other team’s free-throw line, even on a made basket, by six seconds. We’re talking about a team who is getting 44% of their shots in the first six seconds of the shot clock, improving from around 30% of the shot clock. So you have five, six, seven guys having career highs.”
Haslem did, however, add a caveat.
“I’m enjoying watching them,” he said. “But they’ve got to rebound. No rebounds, no rings fellas.”
