By Joseph Goodman, McClatchy Newspapers –
NEW YORK — The only thing more offensive than the language that spewed from the crowd at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night was the form of basketball those angry fans had to witness.
The Heat played like a team that knew the series was already over. There wasn’t much energy or effort beyond LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, which left Miami vulnerable for the first time this postseason. But the Knicks just didn’t have enough to make this first round even slightly interesting. And so, the Heat had seven more turnovers than assists, shot just 42.6 percent but still defeated the Knicks, 87-70, in Game 3 of this first-round series.
(PHOTO: Enterainer Spike Lee, left, taunts LeBron James of the Miami Heat in the fourth quarter during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference first-round series on Thursday, May 3 2012, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Heat prevailed, 87-70, for a 3-0 lead in the series.)
James and Wade combined for 52 points in the first playoff game of their careers at Madison Square Garden. Chris Bosh, who rushed back and forth from New York to Miami and then back to New York to witness the birth of his child, had nine points and 10 rebounds.
The Heat’s bench only scored five points.
Up 3-0 in the series, the Heat can sweep with a win on Sunday in Game 4.
“Coaches like those type of wins when you’re not playing necessarily really well,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Some of the game was ugly.”
Actually, most of it was almost unwatchable. The “good” parts were merely ugly.
Miami managed just 36 points in the first half but trailed by only four points to start the third quarter. From there, the Knicks were abysmal. New York scored just 30 points in second half.
“We were so stagnant and I’ve got to take the heat for that,” Knicks coach Mike Woodson said.
The Heat led 19-10 in the first quarter before it completely lost all interest in the game. For the next nine minutes and nine seconds, the Heat didn’t score a field goal and the Knicks used an 18-1 run to build a 28-20 lead.
The Heat committed eight turnovers in the second quarter and James picked up three fouls in less than eight minutes. New York’s lead reached 11 points in the second quarter before Bosh, Wade and James pieced together a 7-0 run to end the half.
“You like to see your team show some resiliency and dig back in,” Spoelstra said.
James sat out most of the third quarter with foul trouble but Wade carried the team with 12 points in the period. The Heat led 58-56 entering the fourth quarter and then held the Knicks to just 14 points in the final period. Mario Chalmers added 19 points, including 5 of 8 from behind the three-point arc.
James, who finished with 32 points, had 17 in the fourth quarter. He scored eight consecutive points, including two three-pointers, to begin the period. The Knicks were done.
“I just wanted to try to make plays and help our team win,” James said.
Eventually, the Knicks’ fans turned on their own team, booing and lobbing plenty of colorful language toward the court. The crowd heckled James throughout the game.
It was the Knicks’ first game without Amare Stoudemire, who sliced open his hand in Miami on Monday after punching a the glass housing of a fire extinguisher. The Knicks didn’t play any better without him in the lineup.
Three-point specialist Steve Novak started for the Knicks at small forward and didn’t score a point. Meanwhile, Carmelo Anthony’s struggles continued. He finished with 22 points, going 7 of 23 from the field.
J.R. Smith provided 12 points off the bench and Tyson Chandler had 10 points and 15 rebounds.
Spoelstra bristled when asked if the five points his bench had was a concern.
“All it is is noise to us,” Spoelstra said. “We feel comfortable and confident in our rotation.”
Bosh arrived at Madison Square Garden less than an hour before the game after flying from Miami to New York. His son was born at 3 a.m. in Miami. Bosh arrived in New York during rush hour and was stuck in traffic for two hours trying to get to the game, according to Spoelstra.
“I barely made it,” Bosh said, “But I made it.”
When he finally arrived, Spoelstra said Bosh “had a glow on his face. It was great.”
The game wasn’t.
