Knicks vs. Heat, Game 2: Halftime Thoughts From MSG

Even with Jimmy Butler sidelined, the New York Knicks are having trouble dousing the Miami Heat in Game 2 of their NBA Playoff series.

Kevin Jairaj | Credit: USA TODAY Sports

Behind 12 points for Caleb Martin, the Miami Heat have handled business in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals against the New York Knicks without their star playoff talent. Despite a combined 37 points for RJ Barrett and Julius Randle, the Heat have built a 54-51 halftime lead over without Jimmy Butler, putting them on pace to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven series that's set to shift to Miami.

What can we gather from the first half from New York lenses?

Barrett, Randle's Business

While fellow starters Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart have struggled from the field (the Villanova alumni shooting a combined 2-of-10), Barrett (19) and Julius Randle (18) have casually taken things over in an almost "what do you expect?" type of manner. Barrett paced the Knicks' early scoring efforts with 16 in the first quarter, joined in opening-frame double-figures by Randle with 10. The latter then carried most of the offensive load as the game got away from the Knicks a little bit, as he tallied eight of their 20 points over the latter 12 thus far.

Mitch's Sitch

Will Jericho Sims' season-ending surgery come back to haunt the Knicks after all? The second-year big man has long been exiled from New York's nine-man rotation but the Knicks could perhaps use his heightened services to deal with the ongoing foul trouble for both Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein, each of whom have been charged with three fouls. Robinson's absence has been particularly costly: in his minuscule 11 minutes, he has hauled in three of the Knicks' five offensive rebounds, though Hart has tried to pick up the slack with six of his own, all on the defensive end. It'll be interesting to see if Miami, which has been successful from deep, tries invade the paint like Robinson and Hartenstein set to potentially bottle their physicality.

The Best Things in Life Aren't Free

The Knicks' struggles from deep (7-of-20 after sinking their first three to create an early lead) are bad enough but the literal free throws have proven equally problematic. New York improved its foul line chances despite not taking advantage of a mostly immobile Butler in the latter stages of Game 1 by getting to the charity stripe on 17 occasions ... but only sinking 12. Five misses don't sound like a lot, but they certainly loom large in a five-point halftime deficit. Combined with the 12-of-20 output from Game 1, the Knicks have capitalized on only 65 percent of their free throw opportunities in this series to date.

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Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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