Against the likes of the Miami Heat, with three bona fide superstars and tertiary players like Mike Miller (who went 3-5 from 3-point range, with 10 points) and Mario Chalmers (2-4 from 3) who went through a shooting stretch as hot as the Miami sun, a Knicks team that has been widely panned as being incapable of playing good enough defense to beat the elite teams of the NBA, held their rivals to 86 points to avenge an embarrassing loss to the Cavaliers Friday night with their thirtieth win of the season Sunday night in American Airlines Arena. Though New York was somewhat sloppy with the ball, particularly in the first half, committing 16 turnovers, leaving themselves even more vulnerable to the magic of Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh, the Boys in Blue forced 20, with Chauncey Billups’ two steals in the final three minutes headlining the collection. After paying lip service to the defensive end of the floor since the blockbuster trade that brought Billups and Carmelo Anthony to New York last week, that preceded underwhelming defensive efforts in a close win over the Bucks last Wednesday and the humiliating defeat in Cleveland, Amare Stoudemire’s block of a LeBron James layup with 7 seconds left was proof of a check that had been cashed. 

A team that has been perceived as being averse to physical play, the Knicks not only out-defended the 43-17 Heat, but out-rebounded them, with Stoudemire pulling down 10 boards, with 9 by Anthony, and Bill Walker grabbing 7 off the bench. Offensively, the high turnover number and poor shooting stretch in the first half nearly put the game out of reach as they fell behind 15 with a few minutes to go in the first half, but the Knickerbockers went on a 16-0 run to close out the opening act, punctuated with a 3-pointer off the glass at the buzzer by Walker. Billups justified his nickname “Mr. Big Shot” with a deep 3 with a minute to go to set up the key block by Stoudemire to lead to James’ missed 3 on Miami’s final possession. I’ve always felt that the first step to being a great team in any sport is being a team that no one wants to play, and by shutting down an elite explosive squad like Miami for the whole nation to see, the Knicks have assured themselves of being that.