Heat-Knicks redux? ‘We understand the rivalry that they had back in the day. It’s not the same’
It is the narrative that will drive the initial discussion, as the Miami Heat move into their Eastern Conference best-of-seven semifinal playoff series against the New York Knicks, a series that opens 1 p.m. Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
But the reality of the rivalry is that the last time the teams met in a meaningful, competitive postseason matchup, Bam Adebayo had yet to turn 3, Gabe Vincent had yet to turn 4, Jimmy Butler was 10 and even sage Kyle Lowry was just 14.
That was an epic 2000 Eastern Conference semifinal that went the full seven games and went to the Knicks, with Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway as the Heat’s leading protagonists. To put the time lapsed into further perspective, Mourning is now 53, Hardaway 56.
Yes, the teams since then also met in the 2012 first round, but that was a series the Heat dominated 4-1 behind their Big Three core of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, a series so unlike Heat-Knicks of the previous era that streamers were dropped from the Garden ceiling when the Knicks won Game 4 to avoid a sweep.
So for all the decades-old drama of Mourning attempting to detach then-Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy from his leg, to P.J. Brown twirling Charlie Ward like a top, to Allan Houston creating instant Heat heartbreak, to Pat Riley coaching the Heat against his former team, the consensus from the current Heat is to keep it in the current moment.
“I think that’s going to be the fun part of it, is that we’re going to be in that atmosphere,” Lowry said of playing in the Garden. “We understand the rivalry that they had back in the day. It’s not the same.
“But I think this franchise and the organization, with the opportunity to go back and forth, and to play in New York and Miami, and Pat’s history with Pat [Ewing], all that stuff, it’s going to be cool.”
All while keeping the focus on these Knicks and this moment.
“Honestly, you’re asking the wrong person,” forward Jimmy Butler said. “I don’t care where we play. We’ve just got to beat them four times. I understand trying to hype it, but we’re going to go out there and we’re going to compete, we got to be the better group, we’re going to be together for good or bad.
“It doesn’t matter if we play in Miami or we play in the Garden or we play in Rucker Park.”
That doesn’t mean the history of brawls, of heightened hype of Butler going against his former Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau will summarily be cast aside.
“It’s always good for the league,” Heat coach Spoelstra said, “when there’s a Heat-Knicks playoff series.”
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