Tip-off: 7:00 p.m
Where: AmericanAirlines Arena
Starting Lineups
New York Knicks (1-3)
PG: Mike Bibby
SG: Landry Fields
SF: Carmelo Anthony
PF: Amar’e Stoudemire
C: Tyson Chandler
Miami Heat (3-1)
PG: Mario Chalmers
SG: Dwayne Wade
SF: LeBron James
PF: Udonis Haslem
C: Chris Bosh
Keys to the Game:
1. Win or go home. It’s going to be tough as hell to win a game in Miami for this team, but a win tonight would finally put a little pressure on the Heat in this series. With all the backcourt injuries I doubt that a win tonight is going to happen but you never know.
2. Toney Douglas has had one of the more interesting seasons of any player on the Knicks. Coming off a shoulder injury that required surgery he was deemed the Knicks starting point guard heading into the season but lost the job to Iman Shumpert due to poor play. Then Baron Davids returned from injury and Linsanity happened relegating Douglas to the end of the bench. Tonight he will play limited minutes for the first time in this series. All he needs to do is play within himself and he’ll be fine. I just don’t know if he is capable of that. Toney tends to move under screens and force bad shots which drive me insane. I just hope he can limit his turnovers and give the ball to the bigs guys.
3. Lord knows I’m not the biggest Carmelo fan but the Knicks need him to play like he did in game 4 if they want a chance tonight. He took horrific shots and the ball movement died the minute the ball found his hands but he made shots and got to the foul line. He shouldn’t expect to receive the fair officiating he benefited from at home, he’s gonna get smacked around on the blocks without a doubt. He needs his jump shot to fall and to give an A+ effort on the defensive end. I do think the moniker of hero ball that has been associated with players like Carmelo and Kobe is unfair, but if the Knicks have a chance tonight it will be because the black hole put the team on his back.
4. Bring it back to the Garden guys.
Injury Report: Jeremy Lin,Iman Shumpert, and Baron Davis are out with knee injuries.
Watch the game on MSG & TNT and check back to STATandSTUFF.com for in-game tweets.
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