Jeff Van Gundy told the Knicks at halftime to be prepared to be part of one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history.
Following orders perfectly, the Knicks lived on to another day, erasing an 18-point second-quarter deficit and a 15-point halftime crater to stun the Heat last night, 72-70, to force Game 7 in Miami tomorrow.
“Two heavyweights going round after round,” said Latrell Sprewell. “This series has been everything all of us and all of you thought it would be.”
This time, Anthony Carter’s desperation shot – a potential game-winning 3-pointer from straightaway – banged off the back iron and into Spree’s hands to complete the Heat choke job. Sprewell corralled the rebound at the buzzer, fell on his butt and was swarmed by giddy Knick teammates who now take their charter to Miami today at noon instead of packing their belongings and heading for summer vacation.
It is at least the biggest playoff comeback in Knick history since 1970 and may be of all time, according to team officials.
“We picked the most inopportune time to play the worst half we played all year,” Van Gundy said. “I told them we were going to be part of the best comeback in their playoff lives and if they didn’t believe, stay in the locker room.”
By surviving a sickening first half during which they shot 28 percent and scored 30 points while earning a torrent of Garden boos, the Knicks prevailed down the stretch, with the winning points coming on the strength of two Allan Houston free throws with 17.6 seconds left.
Houston was fouled as he drove past Dan Majerle and got clipped. Barely. Majerle called the foul “cheap” afterward. Houston sank both tries to give the Knicks their first lead since midway through the first quarter.
“We could be on vacation right now, but there still is life in us,'” said Patrick Ewing.
Ewing scored 15 points and was a monster on the boards, grabbing 18 rebounds – five on the offensive glass. Houston finished with a team-high 21 points, and Chris Childs, who “guaranteed” a win before the game, played a big role down the stretch, hitting two free throws to tie the score at 70 with 1:31 remaining.
The Knicks, looking frightened at the prospect that their season could end, committed nine turnovers to the Heat’s three and trailed 45-30 at intermission.
“I thought our backs were to the wall when we were down 3-2 but being down 3-2 and 15 at half, that’s even more pressure,” Sprewell said.
The Knicks looked at the stat sheet in the locker room and became heartened.
“That was the bright spot, we were only down 15 points as bad as we shot,” said Sprewell. “We had nine turnovers. They had 21 free throws. You look at those numbers, you have to be optimistic.
“We were very, very confident,” Sprewell added. “That’s the mentality we had. We saw the numbers and were so confident we were going to get the job done.”
The Knicks awoke with an blistering 11-2 run to start the third quarter, closing to 47-41 with 9:01 left in the third. The Knicks got to within 48-43 on an 18-foot pullup by Spree, the Knicks’ sixth basket in as many attempts after intermission.
The Heat scored 25 second-half points, shooting 10 of 31, with the Knicks swarming but Miami missing a lot too.
“I don’t know if we [ever] played a better half defensively,” Sprewell said. “We were great defensively.”
But the Knicks couldn’t get closer than four until Ewing drilled an open face-up 15-footer from the right side to make it 66-64 with 3:39 left. Surviving two perimeters bombs by Anthony Carter, the Knicks stayed within two as Ewing skied to jam home a Childs’ miss to make it 70-68 with 1:55 remaining.
“We know what we needed to do to get back into the game,” said Childs. “We knew it would be a bucket at a time. You can’t get it back all at once. We were very patient. We never did get frustrated after Carter kept hitting jumper after jumper after jumper.”
After Alonzo Mourning missed a top-of-the-key jumper with 1:40 left, Childs hauled in the rebound and P.J. Brown fouled him in the backcourt. Childs hit both free throws with 1:31 left to tie the score at 70.
Things looked bleak when Marcus Camby’s inside shot got blocked by Alonzo Mourning with 48 seconds remaining. But Ewing came up with a huge play, tapping away an entry pass to Mourning as Childs grabbed the ball and got away with a shove as he raced to the frontcourt. After a timeout with 23.6 seconds left, Houston got fouled on a drive by Majerle and broke the tie and Miami’s backs.
With 1.4 seconds, Carter heaved it from the top of the key after Mourning was triple-teamed and kicked it out. Spree grabbed the miss as the buzzer sounded.
“I was just hoping the shot comes off the board,” Sprewell said. “The ultimate challenge now is to win Sunday. We haven’t been able to win two games straight in the series so far.”