Playoff recap for May 3rd 2012: Melo gets his 20
Dre here. I didn’t get Arturo the data for generating his nightly update in time. I’ll take the reigns for today. I’ve decided to break this into game by game so to start let’s go over the marque matchup out west! I’ll be using Arturo’s Points over Par flavor of Wins Produced for examining game stats.
Miami Heat at the New York Knicks game 3
Miami Heat Stats
- PoP: +17.2
| PLAYER | POS | EFG% | FT% | TS% | FT | PTS | POP/48 | POP/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mario Chalmers | 1 | 86% | 0% | 86% | 0 | 19 | 13.2 | 10.9 |
| Dwyane Wade | 1.9 | 53% | 67% | 55% | 2 | 20 | 8.7 | 6.7 |
| Chris Bosh | 5 | 70% | 67% | 71% | 2 | 9 | 7 | 5.4 |
| Udonis Haslem | 4 | 50% | 0% | 50% | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0.7 |
| LeBron James | 3.9 | 48% | 92% | 60% | 12 | 32 | 0.7 | 0.6 |
| James Jones | 2.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0 | 0 | 0.7 | 0.1 |
| Joel Anthony | 5 | 0% | 100% | 35% | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Norris Cole | 1 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0 | 0 | -6 | -0.5 |
| Mike Miller | 2.5 | 30% | 50% | 34% | 1 | 4 | -7.8 | -3.1 |
| Shane Battier | 2.9 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0 | 0 | -4.8 | -3.6 |
Mario Chalmers has been playing better this season and against a bare cupboard of Knicks guards he excelled. Wade has always been excellent in the playoffs and showed up as well. We got a surprise visit from Bosh, who had been iffy on playing at all. LeBron had a mediocre game but that shouldn’t worry Heat fans too much.
| Player | MP | ORB | DRB | AST | PF | STL | TO | BS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mario Chalmers | 39.7 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
| Chris Bosh | 37 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Dwyane Wade | 36.8 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 |
| LeBron James | 35.8 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 0 |
| Shane Battier | 35.5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Mike Miller | 18.9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Udonis Haslem | 16.8 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| James Jones | 11.1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Joel Anthony | 4.8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Norris Cole | 3.7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
I won’t lie, it’s more than a little surprising when your top player is a point guard and they record 0 assists. Bosh actually rebounded like a real forward and Wade was a terror on defense. A little more ball movement might have been nice, but it appears the Knicks weren’t putting up much defense so the Heat didn’t even need to try and pass.
New York Knicks stats
| PLAYER | POS | EFG% | FT% | TS% | FT | PTS | POP/48 | POP/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Bibby | 1.0 | 75% | 67% | 75% | 2 | 8 | 9.3 | 3.4 |
| Tyson Chandler | 5.0 | 33% | 60% | 48% | 6 | 10 | 4 | 3.2 |
| Jared Jeffries | 4.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0 | 0 | 5.2 | 1.5 |
| Josh Harrellson | 4.6 | 33% | 0% | 33% | 0 | 2 | -0.1 | 0.0 |
| Landry Fields | 2.5 | 44% | 100% | 51% | 2 | 9 | -1.4 | -1.0 |
| Baron Davis | 1.0 | 40% | 100% | 55% | 3 | 7 | -4.3 | -2.5 |
| Steve Novak | 3.8 | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0 | 0 | -7.5 | -3.5 |
| Carmelo Anthony | 3.5 | 33% | 78% | 41% | 7 | 22 | -10.1 | -9.1 |
| J.R. Smith | 2.0 | 28% | 100% | 32% | 2 | 12 | -11.2 | -9.1 |
There is this hope that Melo will suddenly rush in and take control. Did it happen? Nope. The former Nuggets that always had attitude problems, shot selection issues and problems getting out of the first round? Well New York’s problem now (why couldn’t they have taken Karl too?) Mike Bibby showed a little life and the Defensive Player of the Year put up some decent numbers but it wasn’t enough.
| Player | MP | ORB | DRB | AST | PF | STL | TO | BS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carmelo Anthony | 43.2 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| J.R. Smith | 39.0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Tyson Chandler | 38.2 | 6 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Landry Fields | 34.2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Baron Davis | 27.2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Steve Novak | 22.3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Mike Bibby | 17.7 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jared Jeffries | 13.5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Josh Harrellson | 4.8 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Other than Chandler’s great rebounding there’s just not much to see here.
Summing up
Let’s be honest, the Knicks didn’t really have a shot in this series. Their one hope was Melo would play great and frankly that was shot down the minute Amare came back. The Heat should be pleased in the play out of Chalmers and Bosh. Of course, it won’t really be until the finals that it will matter if the whole team shows up.
-Dre