The Knicks will face the team directly above them in the standings for the first time this season Thursday night at the Garden, with all four of their head-to-head matchups against the Heat coming over their final 30 games.
Coming off Tuesday’s overtime loss to LeBron James and the Lakers, the Knicks presently reside in the seventh position in the Eastern Conference at 27-25, two games behind Miami for the coveted sixth playoff spot to bypass the 7-10 play-in tournament.
“Very important. Got to find a way to just get over the hump,” Jalen Brunson said when asked about playing the Heat after scoring a game-high 37 points in Tuesday’s loss to the Lakers. “Obviously, they have great personnel, a culture that they talk about all the time.
“So they’re going to come in, they’re going to play hard. We’ve got to match their energy and pick it up on the defensive end. Offensively, we’re scoring a lot of points. Defensively is where we’ve got to pick it up.”
The Heat have won 17 of their last 25 games after opening the season 12-15, including a win Tuesday night in Cleveland to inch within 1 ½ games of the fifth-place Cavaliers.
“It’s very important. You don’t want to be in a play-in game,” Tyler Herro told the Miami Herald. “You want to feel security going into postseason. We should more focus on home court than the play-in.”
Brunson and Julius Randle will find out Thursday whether either or both have been selected to participate in the All-Star Game on Feb. 19 in Salt Lake City.
It would be the second nod in three seasons for Randle, who is posting career bests of 24.7 points and 10.9 rebounds per game while appearing in all 52 games for the Knicks. It would mark the first career selection for Brunson, who is averaging 22.8 points and 6.2 assists in 49 games in the first year of a four-year, $104 million contract.
