Knicks beat Heat 101-92

Knicks beat Heat 101-92

NBA

Knicks beat Heat 101-92

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Tom Thibodeau stuck with the same five players, three off his bench, for the entire fourth quarter of a key victory.

Those guys may need to keep producing in the clutch if the New York Knicks have to play for long without Julius Randle.

Immanuel Quickley scored 24 points, Quentin Grimes had 23 and the Knicks moved closer to a postseason berth with a 101-92 victory Wednesday night that sent the Miami Heat closer to the play-in tournament.

Josh Hart added 13 for the Knicks, who overcame the loss of Randle to a sprained left ankle to win their second straight and remained firmly in fifth place in the Eastern Conference. They are 2 1/2 games ahead of the Brooklyn Nets and opened a four-game gap over the seventh-place Heat.

The Knicks led 86-85 midway through the final quarter before Hart had a pair of baskets and Grimes added four points in a 9-0 burst that pushed it to 95-85 on Quickley’s free throw with 4:17 remaining. The Heat never made another run.

Randle sprained his left ankle late in the second quarter when Bam Adebayo landed on him after Randle had grabbed an offensive rebound and faked the Heat’s center in the air. Randle remained in to shoot the free throws, but was clearly in pain and the Knicks quickly fouled to check him out of the game.

They did it with reserves Quickley, Hart and Isaiah Hartenstein going all 12 minutes, along with Grimes and RJ Barrett.

“The way they were playing was incredible and they just found a way to keep fighting, and everything they were doing on both sides of the ball, they were clicking,” point guard Jalen Brunson said. “So you’ve just got to go with that.”