Butler, Heat snap skid with win over Knicks
Elfrid Payton #6 of the New York Knicks defends against Jimmy Butler #22 of the Miami Heat at Madison Square Garden on March 29, 2021 in New York City. Mike Stobe/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Mike Stobe / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
Jimmy Butler scored 15 of his game-high 27 points during a decisive third quarter Monday night as the visiting Miami Heat snapped a six-game losing streak with a 98-88 win over the New York Knicks.
Bam Adebayo had 20 points and 18 rebounds for the Heat, which won despite the absence of trade deadline acquisition Victor Oladipo, whose debut was delayed because of a head cold.
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Bam wasn't going to be stopped tonight 💥
20 Pts / 17 Rebs / 4 Asts / 2 Blks / 1 Stl pic.twitter.com/ldhZPlJwWH
— Miami HEAT (@MiamiHEAT) March 30, 2021
Tyler Herro scored 18 points off the bench while Duncan Robinson had 14 points for Miami, which ended its longest losing streak since a six-game skid from Dec. 23, 2016 through Jan. 3, 2017.
Article continues after this advertisementJulius Randle scored 22 points and was the lone starter in double figures for the Knicks, whose three-game winning streak ended. Derrick Rose scored 16 points and Immanuel Quickley added 12 points, while Nerlens Noel had eight points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots.
The teams traded runs throughout a defense-minded first half. The Heat opened the game with a 6-0 lead as the Knicks missed their first eight shots before Randle’s layup with 7:51 left.
The Heat expanded the lead to 27-18 before the Knicks went on a 16-0 run, a span in which Rose scored six points and Miami went 0-for-7 with one turnover from the field. New York led by as many as nine and carried a 43-36 lead into halftime.
Butler scored five points in a 7-0 run that tied the game at 45-45 with 9:14 left in the third. The teams were tied twice more before Precious Achiuwa’s dunk — his only basket of the game — put the Heat ahead for good at 52-51. That began an 11-2 run in which Butler scored six points.
The Knicks closed within 64-60 on Rose’s layup with 2:03 remaining before Miami scored 11 of the quarter’s final 15 points and took its first double-digit lead at 75-64 on Gabe Vincent’s 3-pointer with 10.0 seconds left.
The Heat led by as many as 15 in the fourth quarter. Rose’s 3-pointer capped a 9-2 run by the Knicks that narrowed the gap to 86-78 with 5:37 left, but New York got no closer.
