The Knicks beat the Heat on Friday and can root for his or her rival on Tuesday.
It’s a wacky circumstance of the In-Season Tournament, which we’ll try to clarify by first presenting the Group B standings:
Bucks (3-0)
Knicks (2-1)
Heat (2-1)
Hornets (1-2)
Wizards (0-3)
So, the Knicks will win the group and advance to the quarterfinals if … they beat the Hornets on Tuesday, the Heat beat the Bucks and the Knicks finish with a greater point differential than the Heat and Bucks.
Or, the Knicks get a wild-card spot into the quarterfinals if … they beat the Hornets and have the most effective point differential of three teams that finished second within the three Eastern Conference groups.
Currently, the Knicks have the most effective point differential of any teams within the East not winning their respective group.
So that they’re in fine condition in the event that they beat the Hornets handily on Tuesday.
“It’s something to win,” Jalen Brunson said. “As a competitor you should win whatever is in front of you, regardless of what it’s. It’s just one other opportunity really. So put me anywhere, I’ll play wherever.”
Brunson was the hero against the Heat but RJ Barrett had a pair of giant moments.
He nailed an and-1 with two minutes remaining that gave the Knicks the lead for good.
Then he contested Jimmy Butler’s potential game-winning trey on the buzzer, closing out perfectly on the stepback jumper with an outstretched hand.
“I knew he was gonna go to the stepback,” Barrett said. “I believed he was gonna go to the step-back right but he went left. “I like it. Jimmy’s obviously a great player so with the ability to get that stop and secure the win definitely feels good.”
As an assistant with Team USA over the summer, Erik Spoelstra discovered he had an NBA rival living in his neighborhood: Knicks forward Josh Hart.
“I learned that he lives in Miami,” the Heat coach said. “I didn’t know that, but we’re form of in the identical neighborhood.”
Hart and Brunson were each members of Team USA, which lost within the FIBA World Cup in Asia.
“I actually, unfortunately, got here to love not only Josh Hart, but Jalen Brunson,” Spoelstra said. “I actually wanted to come back out of that have disliking them much more. I believe we’ll have the option to get past that. It’s still Heat vs. Knicks. I know the way they’re wired. They know the way we’re wired.”
