The Miami Heat are headed to the Eastern Conference Finals after defeating the New York Knicks 96-92 in Game 6 of their second-round series. It was a closely contested battle that the Knicks led early on, but after the Knicks failed to get a shot up on a potential game-tying possession with under a minute remaining, the Heat pulled away and sealed the game at the foul line.
It was an incredible effort out of Jalen Brunson, who scored 41 points on 14-of-22 shooting. The rest of the Knicks failed to support him, however, as they made just 13 field goals in the entire game. Now the Heat are the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to reach the conference finals. Ironically, the first team to do so was the 1999 Knicks, who beat the Heat on their way there. The Knicks will now go home wondering what might have been after a series filled with botched opportunities, and the Heat will await the winner of Sunday's Game 7 between the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics.
Here are the biggest takeaways from Game 6:
Turning the tables
The 2022-23 Miami Heat are the second No. 8 seed in NBA history to reach the conference finals. The first? That would be the 1999 New York Knicks. Here's the kicker... those Knicks beat the Heat in the first round of the 1999 postseason, which made the Heat just the second No. 1 seed in NBA history to lose a first-round series to that point. It was the culmination of one of the fiercest rivalries of that decade, and it is a stain the Heat have had to carry ever since.
Winning this series doesn't quite make up for that defeat. After all, this matchup was in the second round, and the Knicks were not a No. 1 seed even if they were favored here. But it had been more than a decade since the Heat and Knicks had faced off in the postseason. Many of the principal figures in the Heat organization at least are the same as the were in 1999, with Pat Riley still notably running the front office in Miami. Tom Thibodeau was an assistant in New York back in 1999, and this series had the feel of one of those old-school, ultra-physical Knicks-Heat matchups. That will make this victory all the more satisfying for Miami.
The Knicks failed Jalen Brunson
Here is the most startling stat of Game 6: Jalen Brunson made more field goals (14) than his entire supporting cast combined (13). Julius Randle, the teammate who earned All-NBA honors over him, shot 3-of-14 in the game and 30-of-73 for the series. The Knicks made 10 3-pointers in the game, tied for their third-highest total of the postseason... but half of them came from Brunson. As a team, the Knicks didn't make a fourth-quarter field goal until more than six minutes had passed.
The workload the Knicks asked Brunson to carry was unrealistic even before you remember that he just played 48 minutes in Game 5 two days ago. Miami's defense deserves plenty of credit, but remember, they frequently doubled Brunson when the ball was in his hands. Their defense was designed to stop Brunson and force his teammates to beat them. It failed to stop Brunson, but his teammates couldn't take advantage of the opportunities that he created. Never has this team's need for a second star been more apparent than it is today. Randle may have made an All-NBA team, but he isn't that player.
A coaching mismatch
Tom Thibodeau has won two Coach of the Year awards. Erik Spoelstra has won none. It's one of the strangest historical quirks of this era of NBA history. There isn't a soul in the NBA that would choose Thibodeau over Spoelstra. Spoelstra is a two-time champion. Thibodeau has now lost as a higher seed in four different playoff series despite reaching the postseason only eight times.
The difference between the two of them was on full display in this series. You could make a compelling argument that the Knicks would have won this series in six rather than lost it were it not for two poor decisions on Thibodeau's part. The first came in Game 1, when a clearly injured Jimmy Butler stayed on the floor with a bum ankle and the Knicks made no effort to attack him. The second came in Game 6, when Thibodeau made the bizarre decision to remove Brunson, Randle and Grimes from the game at the same time. It deprived the Knicks of their entire offense. Miami quickly turned it into an 8-0 run. The game was decided by four points.
The Knicks aren't going to fire Thibodeau. The season as a whole, despite the debacle of the Miami series, was a success. He's at least managed to build a strong infrastructure and culture that the Knicks should be able to ride to sustainable regular-season winning. But they have a coach who has consistently bungled basic game-management in the postseason, and if they plan to take the next step into true championship contention, that is a flaw they will have to address.