| |
|
|
 Atonement Heat erase Game 1 nightmare, even series with Knicks
Posted: Monday May 10, 1999 11:05 PM
MIAMI (AP) -- The Miami Heat showed they can still win at home against the New York Knicks. Now Miami needs a victory at Madison Square Garden. Alonzo Mourning scored 26 points and the Heat rediscovered their shooting touch Monday night, hitting 51 percent to beat New York 83-73 and even the best-of-5 series at 1-1. The next two games will be Wednesday and Friday in New York, where the Heat are just 4-9 under coach Pat Riley. "We're behind the 8 ball," Riley said. "By not coming to play in Game 1 and them playing the way they did, we've got to go to New York and get a win." The Heat shot a season-low 35 percent Saturday in a 20-point home loss to New York, but this time they overcame 18 turnovers and another poor shooting performance by Tim Hardaway. Dan Majerle made two 3-pointers, his first baskets of the series, to thwart New York's comeback hopes in the fourth quarter. "We didn't lose our intensity; we got beat by a team that played very well," Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "They got a lot of same shots they had they other night, and they made them." The Knicks, meanwhile, were held to their lowest playoff point total since the 1994 Eastern Conference finals against Indiana. Miami limited New York to 39 percent shooting and harassed Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston, who each scored 22 points in Game 1. Sprewell managed just 15 points with four turnovers, and Houston had 12 points with six turnovers. "A big part of our game plan was not to give those two the comfort zone they had the other night," Riley said. "Whatever shots they had, they earned." The Heat's bench was better too in Game 2, with 36-year-old Terry Porter contributing 11 points and Clarence Weatherspoon adding nine. "You've got Terry Porter -- how old is he, 40?" Mourning joked. "And he's diving on the floor for loose balls. That's what it takes to win." Mourning went 10-for-16 from the field, had eight rebounds and blocked four shots in 46 minutes. Knicks counterpart Patrick Ewing had 16 points and 15 rebounds for the Knicks, but he was hampered by foul trouble, as were Sprewell and Kurt Thomas. "We let this slip away," New York forward Marcus Camby said. "We felt confident we were going to go up 2-0, but we're 1-1. We have to go home and get the job done." Miami made four straight shots for a 20-11 lead, and the margin ranged from four to 14 the rest of the way. Majerle's first 3-pointer made it 72-61, and he struck again with 1:48 left for an 81-70 lead. Hardaway drew frequent double-teaming and managed just 11 points on 1-for-5 shooting. But he did have 11 assists, matching the Knicks' total. "If I score two points and we win, I'm happy," Hardaway said. "They were keying on me, so I have to make plays. It's not about shooting the ball all the time. It's about getting your teammates in the game." The Heat shot 55 percent in the first half to lead 46-35. It was 52-38 midway through the third quarter, but 3-pointers by Larry Johnson and Charlie Ward helped cut the margin to 59-55. With Ewing and Thomas on the bench because of fouls, Mourning made two consecutive baskets for a 69-58 lead, and Majerle finished off the Knicks. Van Gundy said his team wasn't content to head home with the series even. "Homecourt advantage means nothing in this series," he said. "If we're in the mentality that we're happy to get the split, we've got the wrong mentality. They're the best road team in the NBA over the past three years. "We had a chance to go up 2-0. We've got to play much better Wednesday." Notes: The game was a sellout. More a hundred tickets went unsold for Game 1. ... Majerle, frustrated when called for a foul in the second quarter, reacted by briefly taking a seat in the front row. ... Mourning left the game for 42 seconds in the second quarter with a small cut on his right elbow. ... Shocking: New York's Chris Dudley, a 48 percent free throw shooter during the regular season, went 2-for-2 at the line. ... The teams have split 14 playoff games over the past three years.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
