Maybe Amar’e Stoudemire confused the Clippers with the Heat on Wednesday night. The Knicks’ $100 million big man has melted against Miami this season, and he came up small in their 99-93 win over the Clippers at Madison Square Garden.
That could be bad news for the Knicks, who head into the final day of the regular season as the seventh seed, which would draw a first-round matchup vs. LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and the Heat.
With a win tonight vs. the 7-58 Bobcats or a 76ers loss at 24-41 Detroit, the Knicks will lock into the seventh seed. A Knicks loss and Sixers win would drop the Knicks to eighth and a first-round battle with the top-seeded Bulls.
Miami went 3-0 versus the Knicks this season. Stoudemire played in the first two games, but missed the most recent with a bulging disk. But he barely was missed, having produced little against the South Florida superstars in both games he played.
Stoudemire averaged just 12.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in the two games. On Feb. 23, Stoudemire took just seven shots, finishing with 13 points. On Jan. 27, he hoisted twice as many attempts (14), but hit just five of them for 12 points.
In what might have been his final playoff tuneup, Stoudemire did not do much — scoring just 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting and not hitting a single shot beyond four feet. Stoudemire, who is questionable for Thursday night’s game in Charlotte, has played three games since returning from his back woes. He was rusty vs. Cleveland, solid vs. Atlanta and shaky Wednesday night.
“I feel good as far as physically healthy. I feel phenomenal,” Stoudemire said, though he admitted he still is working on his rhythm.
But the bad omens don’t end there for the Knicks. The play of their starting point guards was atrocious vs. the Heat in the regular season. A different point guard started in each game — Toney Douglas, Jeremy Lin and Baron Davis. In the games they started, the trio combined to shoot a miserable 8-for-35 with 16 turnovers and 12 assists.
Not surprisingly, the Knicks shot poorly in every game against Miami (cumulatively, they were at 39 percent) and never cracked the 90-point mark.
Carmelo Anthony also was inconsistent — ranging from brilliant to so-so to missing in action. After missing the 99-89 Jan. 27 loss with a wrist injury, Anthony scored 19 points on just 7-for-20 shooting in a 102-88 defeat on Feb. 23. But Anthony was magnificent in the 93-85 setback at the Garden on April 15, scoring 42 points on 14-for-27 shooting while posting nine rebounds and five assists.
Even the silver lining has a flaw: Just once in the three meetings did both Anthony and Stoudemire play. That was the Feb. 23 meeting, the Knicks’ worst defeat of the trio.
mark.hale@nypost.com