Playoffs 2000:Heat want to end it on Knicks' home court

Heat want to end it on Knicks' home court
Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Nothing would make the Miami Heat happier than ending the New York Knicks' season tonight at Madison Square Garden.

"We would really feel good about ourselves if we did finish it on their home court for the simple fact they finished us off the past two years on our home court," Alonzo Mourning said as the Heat prepared to take a 3-2 lead into Game 6 of the best-of-seven series.

Neither the Knicks nor the Heat have been able to string together consecutive postseason victories in this rivalry since the final two games of the 1998 series.

If the Heat can do it tonight, it would mark the first time these teams have met in the playoffs without going the distance. This is the fourth consecutive year they've met.

"We don't want to go to Game 7," Mourning said. "We know the importance of trying to finish the series off. The past couple of games we lost, we went in with a very nonchalant attitude. If we go in with the attitude of a must-win situation, I think we'll be able to finish it off."

After the Knicks practiced Thursday, coach Jeff Van Gundy was disgusted with his team. To the coach, it comes down to one simple word: rebounding.

"Get the ball," Van Gundy said. "Very simple. Hit somebody and go get the ball."

Of all the blame that could be ferreted out among the individual Knicks for the loss, the sore spots that stuck out were Marcus Camby shooting 1-for-6 and fouling out in 23 minutes, Allan Houston taking only two shots in the second half and Chris Childs, when he wasn't arguing on the court with teammate Patrick Ewing, not having a single assist in 17 minutes.

"Right now, I have no choice but to make something happen," Houston said.

The biggest single problem for the Knicks is that they've been outrebounded in all five games.

Miami grabbed 11 offensive rebounds to New York's five in Game 5, repeatedly getting second chances to score.

"I said before this series that whoever fights for the ball hardest will win, and they have fought harder, and that's why they're up 3-2," Van Gundy said. "If you can't get a rebound, you've got to keep someone from getting a rebound. If you're not doing either, then you've got problems. And that's why we've got big problems right now."

Camby, who eluded reporters Thursday even when they chased him down a stairwell, has been nowhere near the factor he was in last year's playoffs, when the Knicks reached the NBA Finals.

Camby is shooting just 11-for-31 in the series, while starting power forward Larry Johnson has been outrebounded 8-5 on the offensive glass by Anthony Carter, the Heat's backup point guard.

Rebounding "was our No. 1 priority going into the series," Heat coach Pat Riley said. "I thought that's what got us beat last year. It's the willful force of the big men that we're not going to let their big men hurt us. It's a key stat, but it's a hustle stat."

Of the 100 previous best-of-seven series that have been tied 2-2, the team that won Game 5 has gone on to win the series 84 times.

"We're very aware of that," Sprewell said. "It makes it that much more interesting to go out and overcome those odds. It's something that hasn't been done that often, but we've been able to do it before -- being the No. 8 seed and beating the No. 1 seed and getting to the finals."

But that was last year, back when the Knicks were running and rebounding with equal vigor.

In this series, they're doing neither.

"We just have to remember how we've won and why we've won," Sprewell said, "and make that happen on the court."