Knicks Feel Heat but Keep Cool Under Pressure

Twenty-thousand people held their breaths, watching Miami Heat guard Anthony Carter’s three-point attempt arch toward the Madison Square Garden ceiling Friday night.

Had his shot fallen, the Knicks would have fallen, ending their reign as Eastern Conference champions. And the Heat would have peeled the Knicks off its collective backs and clinched a berth in the East finals against Indiana.

“He had been hitting every shot he took to that point,” Knick guard Chris Childs said. “We rotated to the guy and I got a hand in his face. The shot kind of wasn’t as fluid as it had been, but it was a bigger shot and there were a lot of mechanics to it.”

Carter didn’t make this one. It clanged off the rim, securing the Knicks’ remarkable comeback from an 18-point second-quarter deficit to win, 72-70. Game 7 of the East semifinal is Sunday at Miami.

“It’s just one big death grip these teams have on one another,” Heat Coach Pat Riley said grimly. “It was madness, absolute madness.”

The Knicks trailed by 15 at halftime after shooting 27.5%.

“There were no adjustments to make. There was nothing,” Knick Coach Jeff Van Gundy said. “We picked the most inopportune time to play the worst half we played all year, and we played very poorly.

“I told them that they were going to be part of the best comeback in their playoff lives, and if they didn’t believe, stay in the locker room.”

They believed.

“The guys in this locker room were so confident at halftime that we were going to get the job done,” said the Knicks’ Latrell Sprewell, who scored nine of his 15 points in the second half. “We looked at the stats and knew there were things we could improve. We were shooting 27% and got nine turnovers, and with all those things we were saying, ‘We’re only down 15.’

“We could easily have folded, but we didn’t. We fought and scraped, but the ultimate test is Game 7. We haven’t won two in a row in this series, and it’s going to be the ultimate pressure cooker.”

The pressure was intense enough Friday, with the unhappy fans booing as the Knicks left the court trailing, 45-30, at halftime. A 13-2 run enabled the Knicks to cut their deficit to 58-53 after three and rattled the Heat.

“The last thing I said to the team coming out of the locker room is, ‘A lot is going to be determined on what happens in the first four or five minutes of this period,’ and they got right back into the game and developed some confidence and began to play,” Riley said.

They held Miami to 13 points in the third quarter while Sprewell and Allan Houston each scored seven. Carter rebuilt a seven-point lead for Miami with a 21-foot jump shot 16 seconds into the fourth quarter, but the Heat didn’t score from the field again until 6:22 remained, when Alonzo Mourning’s quick jump shot padded Miami’s lead to 64-58.

After Childs’ driving layup with 4:56 to play brought the Knicks within four, Bruce Bowen responded with a layup. Marcus Camby’s dunk of a missed shot by Patrick Ewing cut Miami’s lead to 66-62 with 4:06 to play.

Camby grabbed the rebound of a running one-hander by Dan Majerle and the Knicks took advantage when an unguarded Ewing made a 17-foot jump shot to cut Miami’s lead to 66-64. Two jump shots by Carter, sandwiched around an 18-foot shot by Houston, gave Miami a 70-66 edge. Ewing then rebounded a Childs’ miss and slammed it to make it a two-point game.

Childs--who had taken only two free throws in the series--was fouled by P.J. Brown and calmly made two free throws to tie the score at 70 with 1:31 left. Carter missed a 21-foot jump shot and Camby had a shot blocked by Mourning before Ewing stole a pass by Bowen to give the Knicks possession. After a time out, Majerle was called for a reach-in foul on Houston, who made two free throws with 17.6 seconds left.

That put Carter in position to be the hero for the Heat again--but it didn’t happen. “The ball came out and I thought we got a decent look at it,” Riley said. “[Carter] has really been the only one this evening that was making shots in the second half.

“He got a good look. That’s all you can ask for.”

The Knicks are asking for more--one more victory.

“It’s going to be war,” Childs said. “Higher energy, higher intensity. It’s going to be an all-out battle.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Low Ball

Fewest total points scored in NBA playoff game since the 24-second shot clock was introduced for 1954-55 season:

* 142--New York (72) def. Miami (70), May 19, 2000

* 142--Phoenix (72) def. San Antonio (70), April 22, 2000

* 142--Detroit (79) def. Atlanta (63), May 12, 1999

* 143--Chicago (75) def. Miami (68), May 22, 1997

* 145--Fort Wayne (74) def. Syracuse (71), April 7, 1955

* 145--New York (79) def. Atlanta (66), May 24, 1999