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

Advanced stats for Miami Heat on March 3rd 2012

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.

Non-scoring stats for Miami Heat on March 3rd 2012

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

Advanced stats for New York Knicks on March 3rd 2012

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.

Non-scoring stats for Miami Heat on March 3rd 2012

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