MIAMI – He’s never been afraid to take on the world and that’s just what Latrell Sprewell did in the first half yesterday, giving the Knicks the will to succeed against the Heat
on Miami’s home floor. He once again set the tone. Sprewell never was able to put four good quarters together against the Heat, but his first half yesterday was just what the Knicks needed.
On a day Allan Houston was hurting with a sore ankle, Sprewell rolled to 20 first-half points as the Knicks grabbed a 45-39 half-time lead and then battled back from six down in the final four minutes to steal away with the clinching 83-82 victory in Game 7.
In that first half, Sprewell hit seven of his 12 shots from the field and all five of his free throws. He had one more made free throw than the entire Heat team did in the first half. For the game, he finished 10 of 12 from the line.
“I kept attacking in the first half,” said Sprewell, who finished with a Knick high 24 points. “In the second half I was looking more to pass. This wasn’t easy, I’m exhausted, thankful, happy, just a lot of things right now. It’s been a tough series, Miami deserves it as much as we did. We were just fortunate to come away with the final game.”
This was Sprewell’s first Game 7 of his career.
“There’s pressure,” he said. “But more than anything you feel the pressure. After you get going you try not to worry about anything.”
Sprewell got the Knicks going. In the end, Sprewell turned out to be part of the toughness advantage that the Knicks had over the Heat. The Knicks became only the 14th NBA team in 77 tries to win Game 7 of a series on the road.
Sprewell also came down with the big rebound after Clarence Weatherspoon missed the Heat’s final misguided jumper when the Knicks denied Tim Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning and Jamal Mashburn.
In the last two Knick wins, the Heat got the final shot, which could have won both, but the Knicks had the Heat players they wanted to take that shot, Weatherspoon and rookie Anthony Carter firing a three at the end of the Knicks’ 72-70 win in Game 6.
“We wanted Weatherspoon to take the shot, we didn’t want Zo or Timmy or Mashburn to take the shot, that scenario worked out perfectly,” Sprewell said.
Sprewell was spun out of bounds by the Heat after getting the rebound, but teammates called time-out, just in time with 2.1 seconds remaining.
“I didn’t call time-out,” Sprewell said. “They were pushing me out of bounds, I think Marcus (Camby) called it.”
“We were all calling time-out,” Camby said.
The irony of all this is that the Heat wanted Sprewell last year, but Pat Riley, who has made some bad personnel decisions, didn’t pull the trigger on the Sprewell trade with Golden State, allowing the Knicks to grab him.