THE HEAT were there for taking last night at the Garden. Alonzo Mourning wasn’t dominating the middle, Tim Hardaway was still struggling with his shot and Jamal Mashburn was pulling his usual no- show.
The Knicks were up by 11 points early in the third quarter after an 7-0 run to start the second half put them up 51-40. The Garden was jumping, chanting something not-so-nice about Pat Riley.
It seemed only a matter of time before the Knicks would finish off the Heat and wait for the winner between the Pistons and the Hawks. There would be at least three days, a virtual vacation in this crammed season. Three days to rest Patrick Ewing’s Achilles and Chris Childs bruised quad.
Instead, the Knicks needed just one quarter to blow everything they had put themselves in position to earn. They turned what should have been a thrilling victory into a frustrating 87-72 defeat and subsequent trip back to South Florida. Now, they must do what they didn’t want to do. The Knicks must travel to Miami for a Game 5 at Miami Arena tomorrow, when it will be winner-take-all again.
“We’ve got some new life,” Riley said. “We get another chance. We showed great, great resolve. We’re going to need that kind of resolve on Sunday.”
I guess there is some good news amid the Knicks’ latest meltdown. For the first time in three years, each team will go into the final game with a full complement of players. There will be no suspensions for Rod Thorn to hand down this time around. Both teams managed to get through four games without someone duking it out. Still, this is not what the Knicks wanted.
The goal was to end it last night. Seize the momentum from Wednesday’s lopsided win, eliminate the Heat, then get some much- needed rest. That was the plan. Instead, the Knicks have given the Heat new life. A top-seeded team, heading home, feeling like a top seed.
The Knicks will be quick to remind us that they won a deciding Game 5 at Miami last year. But Mourning wasn’t playing in that one, sidelined along with Knicks forward Larry Johnson after the two traded blows in Game 4. Truth is, Miami Arena is the last place the Knicks wanted to see again. But they have no one but themselves to blame.
The loss is even more unacceptable because the Knicks were doing just fine through two quarters and into the third. Though their offense wasn’t as fluid as it was in Wednesday’s night romp over the Heat, they still managed a 44-40 lead at halftime and looked in complete charge up 51-40 with 9:26 left in the third quarter. But that’s when the momentum in the game and the series began to switch to the Heat.
Mourning hit a short hook, then P.J. Brown followed with a nine-foot jumper. As the Knicks began to struggle with their free-throw shooting, the Heat kept coming. A dunk by Mourning off a pass from Terry Porter brought the Heat to within 55-51 and then the three-point shot that had been the Heat’s lost weapon for most of this series began to hurt the Knicks.
Voshon Lenard drained two from behind the arc, the second tying the game at 62-all. A few minutes later, Hardaway buried a three to give the Heat the lead for good, 67-64. It got uglier for the Knicks as time went on.
If they had lost in a thriller or in the final minutes, the defeat might have been more acceptable. But a meltdown? Playing at the Garden, the Knicks were outscored 29-10 in the fourth quarter, shooting 2-of-13 with five turnovers.
Jeff Van Gundy called timeout after timeout. He cussed at his team; he encouraged it. Nothing worked.
“We were in the fourth quarter, up four at home, and we didn’t get the job done,” Van Gundy said.