The Sportsfather

A White Hot Victory

It was the battle the basketball gods wanted ! The first round matchup of The Heat and Knicks , a serious NBA rivalry .

You had the 4 of the top 5 draft picks from the 2003 draft class , with 3 of them on the Miami Heat, then there was the LeBron vs Melo saga, and the battle of two cities Miami vs New York . What more could a fan ask for ?

LeBron and Wade came out looking like they were in playoff beast mode, going hard at the rim attacking at will and showing no regard for human life with their monster slams to open the period. In the early minutes of the first the Heat and Kincks looked to be in an all out battle matching shot for shot. This had the making of the late nineties playoff battles , I looked over to the corner and saw Zo sitting . Remember when Jeff Van Gundy was hanging from his leg . Tensions were high from the get go the fans were in full force Udonis and Amare had some nice words with each other and the ref gave them both technical fouls, that’s a fight i wanted to see . From the get go the Heat had a game plan , lets play Miami Heat playoff basketball and shut down Melo, they did a pretty good job at it too Melo only had 11 total points going 3-15 from the field , while Lebron had 11 points in the opening period Wade and Bosh each added 6 and Miami ended the quarter up 24-18.

The Knicks never stood a chance, from the start of the second quarter the Heat scored the first 8 points . Again there were hard fouls and hard hits on Miami. The refs should have called a better game .Tyson Chandler had a nasty elbow at the back of LeBron’s head , it was a clear flagrant foul but was only called a personal foul . The crowd let the refs and Chandler know they were pissed . It must have lit a white-hot fire deep within The King , from that point on Miami took the game over locking down Carmelo , Amare and Tyson . The Heat never looked back running the floor ,creating space and closing out the quarter with a 24-2 run . Miami was just too much for the Knicks to handle .Shane Battier did a nice job while Lebron was on the bench , continuing to stop Melo and hit some nice open 3′s . Chris Bosh looked a little slow out there i feel he was still ailing for his injuries. Speaking of injuries word spread fast that the Bulls Guard Derrick Rose was going to be out for the rest of the playoffs. Due to a torn MCL and ACL he suffered in the bulls victory of the 76ers , with 1:10 left in the game up by 10 he was driving to the lane and planted too hard . BOOM torn it all up . Why was he in ? That was the big question . I felt bad for the kid , but it looks like we will have a possible Celtics Heat eastern confrence finals match-up. Miami held the Knicks to 13 second quarter points while scoring 30 to hold a 54-31 lead.

Halftime was a god one for me , My friend Howie was sitting on the Dewers Rail an invited me up to have a drink with him , the Rail is the only bar at the arena that has Kettle One Vodka . How could I resist after all it is my favorite vodka and it was free thanks Howie . I invited my brother up but he stayed at the seats , he was my DD for the afternoon so no drinks for him thanks Brian . Dewers Rail is a great place to watch a regular season game , but for the playoffs i must sit in the thick of thing with all my season ticket holder friends in my section. So back to my seats I went , My brother is always trying to take my isle seat but every time he sits there they lose , i was not about to give up my seat to him in the second half even though Miami was up big with a 23 point lead.

The second half started the same way the first half ended , the Knicks were playing with fire and were getting burned. Miami opened up to take a 30 point lead extending their run of 24-2 to a 32-2 run . LeBron was in takeover mode playing like he has all season long . He is the MVP and every time he went to the line the fans reminded him of that with the MVP chants. The Injury Sniper made an appearance taking his fury out on a unassuming rookie , the Knicks Iman Shumpart , torn ACL . BOOM out for the playoffs . Midway through the 3rd Shumpart was moving the ball across mid court , with Chalmers about 5 feet in front of him he tried to move past him and the sniper struck , on top of that he lost the ball and Rio took advantage with an easy lay-up . Mario finished the game with 11 Points and 9 asst. The Knicks were again outscored by double digits 27-16 . Lebron added 6 more points to his total adding up to his 32 point game , and he would not return for the 4th . Wade had a solid 8 point quarter as well . The 3rd was all about the Heat doing what they do best Playing Big-D.

Bring on the reserves . By the end of the third Miami held a 34 point lead 81-47 it was a good chance for the heats role players to get some action. Miami’s role players held their own against the Knicks who were trying to make a come back but the reserves were not letting that happen , not on their home court. The Heat were outscored 20-19 in the fourth but LeBron did not play , Wade and Bosh played maybe 2 min total . it was really just a scrimmage for Miami’s bench. The Heat and had this game from the start , Coach Spo said it best “LeBron really led the way, obviously attacking , getting to the free throw line. He was the back line of our defense, like a free safety, reading the offense in front of us.” great victory for Miami . Beating the New York 100-67 despite LeBron , Bosh, and Wade not playing the 4th

This is the playoffs and the Miami heat are ready to take on the challenge that faces them . they have one goal and one goal only winning Uncle Larry’s trophy . Lebron had 32 , Wade added 19 and Bosh with 9 . New York’s Big 3 did nothing much to the fact Miami’s D wast too good , holding the Knicks to just 67 points on 35% shooting and forcing 27 turnovers .

Playoffs basketball is on and the Heat is on