You play the Celtics, the Cavaliers, the Bobcats, heck, even the Lakers, these days, you can take a possession off here or there. Heck, you can probably take a quarter off and not miss a beat.
Try that against the Heat, and well, just ask the Knicks what happened Saturday.
“I don’t want to let this game get anybody down or get us down as a team,” Carmelo Anthony said. “Because it happened. Did we play well tonight? No.
“Those guys played extremely well.”
Those guys were the two-time world champion Heat, who, behind 30-point scorer LeBron James, came, saw, conquered and clobbered the Knicks late, turning the screws in the fourth quarter for a 106-91 victory that ended the Knicks’ four-game winning streak and sent them to their 28th defeat, equaling the total of all last season.
“At this point, we’re taking it game by game,” said Anthony who had 26 points — but also seven of the Knicks’ 18 turnovers. “This season and last season is no comparison. It’s a different year, a different team.”
Ain’t that the truth.
The Knicks — despite their fumbling and bumbling, and often indifferent approach defensively — still were within six points entering the fourth quarter. One of the positives — along with the return of Amar’e Stoudemire (four minutes) and Kenyon Martin (14:33, two blocks, two rebounds, four points).
“We kept hanging in there, hanging around in the third quarter,” said coach Mike Woodson, whose gang ended their eight-game homestand at 4-4. “We were down six going into the fourth. I felt pretty good about it.”
But those Woodson good feelings evaporated quite quickly. Why?
“We had a lot of turnovers and some miscues,” said Tyson Chandler (eight points, 11 rebounds).
The Heat, meanwhile, had James (eight rebounds, seven assists, six steals, too) plus Dwyane Wade (22 points).
“We got stops, we forced turnovers and we defensive rebounded,” said James, who combined with Wade for 15 points in the fourth quarter when Miami outscored the Knicks, 29-20. “On the offensive end, we executed. When we do that, we are a good team.”
Know all those things LeBron said the Heat did? Well, the Knicks didn’t do them. When the Knicks don’t do those things, they are a bad team.
“[LeBron] made shots. When he makes shots, when he gets it going like he did late in the fourth, it’s tough to handle,” Anthony said. “Just like anybody else, but with him he caused so many match ups tonight and they took advantange of them.”
The Knicks were within seven points after Tim Hardaway Jr. (17 points) drove at 7:26. Then the Heat ran off eight straight points, capped by James hitting an 18-footer.
“They packed the paint. … [They] did a great job closing out, just couldn’t really get the ball to the open man in the second half,” said J.R. Smith, who scored 20 points but drew the unenviable assignment of guarding James, as Imam Shumpert sat a second straight game with a sprained right shoulder. “He does what he does every night, everything — rebound, passing the ball, his vision is tremendous. He just really got it going at the end of that fourth quarter.”
Or as Woodson said, “LeBron was LeBron.”
So the Knicks ended a homestand that tied for the longest in team history with a break-even mark. Considering the near calamitous 0-3 start, a .500 homestand wasn’t that dreadful. Not great. But not dreadful.
“We won some games. We lost some games,” Anthony said. “We lost some games that we thought we should have won … but that’s neither here nor there. I like the direction that we’re going in as far as our mentality, our focus.”
Now if they can just keep that focus for 48 minutes a game.