Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo scored 50 points to lead the Miami Heat to a 109-101 victory over the New York Knicks in the NBA playoffs last night. The Heat now hold a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series before the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat, who were the runners-up in 2020, need just one more win to advance to the Eastern Finals.
Similar to Game 3, the Heat dominated the match except for two brief leads by the Knicks in the first quarter. The Heat finished the first quarter ahead 31-30 and began the second quarter with a 9-2 run against the visiting team. The Heat's advantage was bolstered by a deep bench capable of scoring, unlike the Knicks who relied heavily on the trio of Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson, and RJ Barrett. Adebayo scored 16 points in the first half, which ended with the Heat ahead 56-48.
The lead grew to 11 points at the start of the second half, but the Knicks rallied to narrow the gap to 67-65 with five consecutive points from Barrett. The Heat quickly regained control with strong performances from Butler and Max Strus, finishing the third quarter 90-81. The Knicks could not reduce the deficit to less than five points, despite Brunson's 13 points in the final quarter.
Butler led the Heat in scoring with 27 points, while Adebayo contributed 23 points. The Heat benefited from three other players scoring at least ten points, including Strus with 16 points. Brunson was the top scorer for the Knicks with 32 points, followed by Barrett and Randle with 24 and 20 points, respectively.
