The New York Knicks lost to the Miami Heat 105-86 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Here are three reasons why New York fell to a 2-1 deficit in the series. The offense for New York was downright terrible in this one.
The New York Knicks lost to the Miami Heat in a game where they struggled a lot on the offensive end. It seemed from the beginning that the Knicks would struggle on the offensive end in this one and they did. Minus some small offensive output from Jalen Brunson and a couple of others, they lost this game by a blowout score.
After a performance like this, it makes it hard to see how this will still be a competitive series going forward.
Here are three reasons why the Knicks lost to the Heat in Game 3.
3 reasons why the Knicks lost: 3. Julius Randle
Julius Randle really struggled in this game offensively. He continued his on-off again struggles in the playoffs with a disaster of performance in Game 3. Randle really struggled from three in this game. Randle got into a fight with Cody Zeller, and missed the technical free throw. It was that type of night for Randle from the floor.
Randle ended up with 10 points on 28 percent shooting from the floor. The All-Star really struggled from the offensive end and was downright horrible on that end. The Knicks have clearly missed his big-man presence as they have lost the edge in the paint on both ends.
3 reasons why the Knicks lost: 2. R.J Barrett (minus a two-minute stretch early in the second half)
R.J. Barrett really struggled in this game. Barrett couldn’t really make buckets in this game outside of a three-pointer, and five points stretch coming out of halftime. Additionally, Barrett couldn’t really make jump shots in this game on his way to not solving the lack of offense for the Knicks.
Besides that stretch early in the second half, Barrett ended up with only nine points for the entire game. He ended up shooting a horrible 31 percent from the floor.
3 reasons why the Knicks lost: 1. Shooting Woes for New York
The Knicks really struggled in this game on the offensive end. Going forward, New York’s chances of winning this series are extremely low if they aren’t able to somehow get over this scoring slump. It just seems like they can’t get any buckets from anyone and have to depend on heavily contested three to go in. That’s a recipe for disaster.
The Knicks attempted 40 threes and made only 8 of them. Overall form the floor, they shot 34 percent from the floor. It seemed like the Knicks could get open looks but couldn’t make them in this game. Despite the win in game two, the offense for this entire game fared fairly close to their offense in the first half of game two.
With Jimmy Butler not 100-percent for the next two games, this series might go six games. Still, this series is over for Knicks unless the shooting gets a lot better. Considering their offense has been in the dumpster for the entire post-season, it is likely that they will not.