NBA: Knicks equalize against Heat

Jalen Brunson, author of 30 points, allowed the Knicks to painfully beat the Heat (111-105), yet deprived of Jimmy Butler, to equalize at one everywhere in their Eastern Conference semi-final on Tuesday in the NBA play-offs.

Faced with a Miami team devoid of its leader, who had not finally recovered 48 hours after spraining his right ankle harvested at the end of match N.1, victory was all the more imperative for New York, under penalty to show up in Florida for the next two games with low morale and too much behind to make up for.

Mission accomplished therefore at Madison Square Garden, boiling hot as usual and which had to wait the last three minutes to breathe a little, when Brunson (10/19 on shots) put the Knicks definitively in front of the score with his sixth award-winning basket of the evening, followed by a floater (101-96).

The leader, good pick arrived from Dallas last summer, was then relayed by Josh Hart, author of seven points in the last 98 seconds and close to the triple-double (14 pts, 11 rebounds, 9 assists).

Julius Randle, who was making his comeback after missing two matches with a similar injury to his left ankle, was also dominant (25 pts, 12 rebounds), RJ Barrett also contributing up to 24 pawns.

Despite all these combined efforts, nothing was easy for New York, because Miami is tough, like Gabe Vincent (21 pts) who scored eight points just after taking an elbow to the jaw in the last quarter, and remain a tough team even without Butler, whose primary virtue is to fight until the end.

She thus put up an impressive resistance for a long time, relying on a starvation defense and a few flashes of well-sharpened second knives who took their responsibilities in attack, including Caleb Martin (22 pts), when the executives Bam Adebayo ( 15 pts) and Kyle Lowry (6 pts) were too discreet.

Having regained the advantage of the floor at the start of the series authorized the Heat to a defeat. He will have to confirm this advantage in front of his public and also hope that Butler is operational.