“We have a long way to go. They did what they had to do. They came in and got a split.”DAN MAJERLE After an embarrassing playoff series opening defeat, the Heat came out on their home court and won the game they had to win. They won the battle that Alonzo Mourning likened to a take-all Game 5. Miami had evened the series. But then with the series changing addresses, a gut-busting thought hit Pat Riley. He left the water running at home? No, worse than that.
“All of a sudden, it came to me, ‘Now we’ve got to go to the Garden. There’s a possibility we may not come back home,'” said Riley, whose Heat must at least duplicate the Knicks’ feat of a foreign-floor split or else they won’t go back home in the playoff series.
And complicating the matter for Miami will be the status of starter Dan Majerle, who is listed as a “game-time decision” by the club but whose right shoulder injury could be worse than the team suggests.
The Heat, after being dismantled in virtually every area in Game 1, responded with ferocity Monday to even the series with an 83-73 victory. There were, however, some mixed emotions.
After all, there exists the chance the Heat might not see their home in the playoffs again if the Knicks can pull off an unlikely – not impossible, unlikely – sweep of Games 3 and 4 tonight and Friday.
“We blew it, let’s face it,” said Riley, referring to how the Heat squandered the home court advantage they fought so hard to earn in the regular season by losing at home in Game 1.
“We’re happy, but let’s not get carried away,” said P.J. Brown, who said even the Game 2 victory had its danger signs. “We could have done a lot better job of closing them out.
“We didn’t put the hammer on them the way they put the hammer on us.”
True. The Heat, up 14 in the third quarter, had to sweat and fume and come up with some might big plays after the Knicks closed to within 55-51 and made matters far more interesting than necessary.
But the Heat played, in Riley’s terminology, “in a desperate state of mind.” Desperate times, desperate measures. And for Miami, that means even more defensive measures.
The Heat played tough, physical defense, the type of defense that might result in some serious foul trouble with less lenient officiating. But make no mistake, the Heat outworked, outhustled, outgrinded the Knicks in every aspect.
They got the big scoring from Mourning in the middle, the set ups from Tim Hardaway in the backcourt and the sweat and muscle from everybody.
“Defense is something we take great pride in,” Mourning said. “If we’re not at the top of our game defensively, it shows on the court.”
“The effort we gave compared with the effort New York gave in Game 1,” Majerle said. “It woke everybody up and we realized we had to play a lot harder.
“We did a much better job fighting through screens and getting up on them. We have a long way to go. They did what they had to do. They came in and got a split.”