Heat 98, Knicks 96: “Rose is fast. IQ is fast. Nice quick rear end.

Facing the same opponent twice in a row, the Knicks took their talents to South Beach on Tuesday night for a rematch with the Heat.

Without a little home cooking at the end of the officials, they might have achieved the redemptive victory they were looking for.

I’m not normally the type to blame a loss on the officials, but the Zebras absolutely did it for the Knicks in this game. But it was late in the game. Let’s start from the beginning.

The Knicks opened this game … let’s just say, slow. at one point in the first quarter they found themselves down 11 – 20-9 – mainly due to Kelly Olynyk being extremely hot from the pitch and Jimmy Butler setting the trend that would continue the rest of the night : get a ton of free. throws.

The Elfrid Payton got hot, yada yada yada, and the show really started when Immanuel Quickley and Derrick Rose arrived with 3:27 to get into the first.

Maybe it wasn’t surprising to see Rose step into the game immediately after about 24 hours with the team (and maybe just a shoot, if that) through the lens that he’s the player. favorite of Tom Thibodeau, but it was still quite surprising to me that he has in the game and managed to make an impact like him.

I think a lot of people, myself included, were worried about the effect Rose would have on Quickley and her playing time situation going forward. In fact, Rose just provided a version of what Austin Rivers had provided lately, but, in fact, fine.

In fact, in a lot of the half-court scenarios, Quickley was even the one to drop the ball. Rose seemed like the guy the Knicks were looking to get things done in transition, which is good, as he’s definitely still a maestro when the going calls “go really fast”.

Rose got Quickley started by helping her first bucket, a triple:

He bottled Duncan Robinson, something that happened all night between Rose’s great defense and Reggie Bullock:

And he was exhausted and suffered even from the deepest:

All told, Rose and Quickley came in at 3:27 in the first, down 25-17. In just over seven minutes they would lead 42-30, including a neat 15-0 run early in the second quarter, aided by Alec Burks, Nerlens Noel and Obi Toppin. The Quickley / Rose / Burks trio symbiosis was fantastic, constantly moving the ball around the perimeter in search of open shots and pushing the pace in transition. As commentator alispeech said, “Rose is fast. IQ is fast. Nice quick rear end. Indeed.

Unfortunately, the starters weren’t able to keep that momentum going and the Knicks would fall behind 57-55 at the break.

Once the third quarter started, a fairly common occurrence happened: RJ Barrett scored in a flurry of points, losing seven and distributing two assists in the third quarter only.

Rose, Quickley and Co would come back and push the lead to 10 again, but a more familiar version to Rose to Knicks fans put their heads down on their second stint on the bench. It should be noted again, however, that this guy literally didn’t have time to adjust to this team (I don’t think he was even allowed to be on a shoot until the Dennis Smith Jr.’s physique was cleared halfway through Tuesday) and still managed to deliver a punchy 20 minutes with an effective 14-point performance and three assists.

As the game dwindled into critical time, the Knicks held their own and kept the game tight, despite Bam Adebayo and Butler literally racking up nearly double the Knicks’ free throw attempts on their own (31 in the two against 16 at the Knicks as a team). This is where the crappy arbitration that I mentioned earlier comes in.

On one play, Randle was called for a foul on Adebayo which was definitely not a foul. It has been revised and has always been considered a fault. Adebayo missed his first free throw and some Knicks could be heard loudly shouting “BALL DON’T FUCKIN ‘LIE.”

On another play, Adebayo and Randle were both going for a loose ball, which on replay was clearly out of Adebayo. Randle protested and was given a technical foul.

Finally, at a critical point in the game, Randle attempted a shot that would have put the Knicks in place with just one, and in the ensuing fight for the rebound, Olynyk openly pushed Mitch aside, which didn’t was not called. Meanwhile, Butler fell and acted like he was dying and got the culprit. He even twisted comically on the floor and looked up to see if anyone noticed him:

These are just three specific examples. In general, the Heat were basically allowed to get away with murder while the Knicks were punished to death. Basically it looked like ’90s basketball on the Heat side, while the Heat got the James Harden treatment on the other end.

In the end, however, the ball didn’t lie once again – Butler missed one of his two free throws after his acting performance, and the Knicks had a chance to tie the game. final. RJ had pretty much the look you could have asked for, but just couldn’t get the part:

And that was the game.

Notes

– Randle shot 4-18 in this game, but mostly because I think he understood what the game was called and started to settle for the jumpers a bit. And even on the jumpers, I think the Heat had a lot more leeway to get into Randle’s space than any Knick defender would have been given on the other end.

– Really, I feel like everyone on the Knicks was just getting roughed up in this game.

– The Rose / Quickley pairing worked out pretty well, although as fun as seeing how they moved and grooved, I hope IQ is left with ball handling more often than in the future. Rose was surprisingly good at catching and pulling this game, and his numbers have shown he can do it very well in recent years. It could definitely help to have him as a secondary facilitator / guy who can go to the hoop and do something with it. That said, having Quickley do some of his off-ball work is also a good thing, and Rose seemed willing and able to find him in this game. If this is the type of chemistry they can have after not even a single practice, I think we’re going to have a great time moving forward.

– Mitchell Robinson and Nerlens Noel had some very good games in defense, combining for eight titles. Mitch had a foul or two, but other than that they provided the 48 minutes of rim protection you’d expect between them.

– I’m waiting for this “hot” Elfrid Payton streak to end any day, it’s getting a little boring. Even when he’s playing well (for himself), he has the means to miss wide open passes, undersea his possessions in iso for himself, and generally not playing good defense. I am ready to move on. Bring in those “suitors” who supposedly want it and ship it out for some items on the McDonald’s dollar menu.

– Obi Toppin played 11 quality minutes, largely because he didn’t have to face Austin Rivers by pretending he didn’t exist.

That’s all I have for today. No game before Friday! Enjoy the W-Knicks ball in the meantime, and be sure to check out the Miranda at Strickland recap if you want a more elegant description of this game.