Short-handed Heat shows fight, but falls to Knicks without Jimmy Butler. Series tied 1-1

The Miami Heat has needed to overcome a lot this season to reach the second round of the playoffs, and it nearly added to that list on Tuesday.

But the eighth-seeded Heat couldn’t overcome the absence of its best player Jimmy Butler, falling just short in a 111-105 loss to the fifth-seeded New York Knicks in Game 2 of their second-round playoff series on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden. The series is tied 1-1, with the series now moving to Miami for the next two games.

“I loved the way the guys were playing on both ends of the court,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I thought everybody really competed. I thought we did everything we needed to do to give ourselves a chance to win on the road. But you do have to credit New York.”

The Heat was without two starters in Butler (sprained right ankle) and Tyler Herro (broken right hand) and reserve guard Victor Oladipo (torn patellar tendon). Butler played in Game 1 but turned his ankle late in Sunday’s series-opening win.

The Knicks were basically at full strength, with All-Star forward Julius Randle returning to play in Game 2 after missing Game 1 because of a sprained left ankle.

But it was still a competitive game throughout that included 16 lead changes and 13 ties.

The short-handed Heat appeared to be in position to escape with another remarkable playoff win, leading by six points with 7:06 remaining in the fourth quarter.

But the Knicks responded by closing the game on a 24-12 run to complete the comeback win. The run began with a three-pointer from Jalen Brunson as Isaiah Hartenstein was fouled simultaneously while setting a screen, and Hartenstein made the free throw to complete the four-point play and cut the deficit to two points with 6:42 left.

After a Heat turnover, the Knicks tied the game at 93 on a jumper from Brunson with 6:08 to play.

On the next possession, Heat guard Gabe Vincent was fouled while shooting a three. He made all three free throws to temporarily quite the New York crowd, allowing Miami to retake a three-point point lead with 5:52 remaining.

But what happened next was especially painful for the Heat, as the Knicks came away with two offensive rebounds on a possession that ended with Josh Hart hitting a three-pointer to again tie the score at 96. The Heat never led again, as the Knicks turned that momentum into an eight-point lead with 31.5 seconds to play.

The Knicks grabbed four offensive rebounds in the final 5:15 of the game, while the Heat did not come away with a single offensive rebound in the fourth quarter.

“When it becomes winning time, you got to make some plays and those second-chance opportunities were really the deciding factors,” Spoelstra said. “The things that we take pride in, ball in the air and ball on the floor, they pretty much dominated those last six minutes.”

Somehow, the Heat still managed to make one last push and pull within three points with 22 seconds remaining. But it was too late, as Hart made both free throws after an intentional foul to push the Knicks’ lead back up to five with 12.8 seconds to play and seal the victory.

Brunson led the charge for the Knicks with a game-high 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field and 6-of-10 shooting on threes. Randle added 25 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists for New York.

The Heat used a balanced offensive attack without Butler. Caleb Martin scored a team-high 22 points and Vincent totaled 21 points.

Heat center Bam Adebayo finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

Game 3 of the series is Saturday at Kaseya Center in Miami (3:30 p.m., ABC).

“We always pride ourselves on the next-man-up opportunities and situations,” Heat guard Kyle Lowry said. “It was a great game. Everybody played their role and put their fingerprints on the game. But give credit to the Knicks. They found a way to win the game. Now we go and focus on Game 3, get healthy and get ready to go for Saturday.”

Five takeaways from the Heat’s Game 2 loss to the Knicks on Tuesday:

The hope is that Butler will be able to return for Game 3.

Butler was listed as questionable on the injury report for Game 2 before he was ruled out about 90 minutes prior to tipoff on Tuesday.

The good news for the Heat and Butler is there’s a three-day break between Games 2 and 3 of the second-round series. With Butler missing Game 2 after spraining his ankle in Game 1 on Sunday, he’ll get nearly a week to rest his ankle before Game 3 on Saturday in Miami.

Despite Butler missing Tuesday’s game, it appears the Heat has avoided the worst-case scenario. An MRI wasn’t needed and the sprain isn’t as significant as initially feared.

Butler sprained his right ankle on a drive to the basket while making contact and drawing a foul on Hart with 5:05 left in the fourth quarter of Game 1.

Losing Butler for any amount of time this postseason is a big blow for the Heat. He has averaged 35.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.8 steals per game while shooting 58.5 percent in six games during the playoffs.

But if Butler can return for Game 3, the Heat is still in good position after stealing home-court advantage in the series with its Game 1 victory.

The Heat is 9-10 in games that Butler missed this season.

If the Heat wasn’t already dealing with enough injuries, starter Max Strus hurt his back in Game 2.

Strus hobbled back to the locker room with 4:16 left in the third quarter with what the Heat diagnosed as a lower back contusion. He sustained the injury while trying to take a charge on Hart.

Strus eventually returned to the court with 6:06 remaining in the fourth quarter. But he did not record a single point, rebound or assist and did not even get up a shot after re-entering the game.

Before hurting his back, Strus was in the middle of a strong performance. He recorded 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 3-of-7 shooting from three-point range before sustaining the injury in the third quarter.

“He was able to get back in there, stay warm and he was really good tonight, as well, and even putting his body in harm’s way several times,” Spoelstra said of Strus. “That was just one of the car wreck collisions. But he has a couple days to get healthy.”

The Heat’s game plan without Butler: Put up a lot of threes.

With the Heat unable to run its offense through Butler in Game 2, the Heat played through Adebayo and relied on its three-point shooting to help keep up with the full strength Knicks.

How many threes did the Heat take? 17 of Miami first 25 shots on Tuesday came from three-point range.

The Heat, which averaged 17.9 three-point attempts per first half in the regular season, shot 10 of 26 (38.5 percent) in Tuesday’s first half.

The Heat closed Game 2 just one shot short of matching its franchise record for the most three-point attempts in a playoff game, finishing 17 of 49 (34.7 percent) from three-point range.

Vincent made a team-high four threes and took a team-high 12 threes on Tuesday.

The Heat’s franchise record of 50 three-point attempts came in Game 1 of its first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2021 playoffs.

Without Butler, the Heat also relied heavily on zone defense in Game 2.

The Heat used its 2-3 zone defense for just seven possessions in the series opener, but Miami went to it much more frequently on Tuesday. The Heat turned to zone for an eye-opening 62 possessions and man-to-man for just 30 possessions in Game 2, according to Synergy Sports.

The zone helped to limit the Knicks’ paint opportunities after New York scored 62 points in the paint in Game 1 and forced the Knicks into more three-pointers than usual after New York shot just 7 of 34 (20.6 percent) from beyond the arc in Game 1. In fact, the Knicks entered Tuesday shooting a league-worst 26.8 percent from three-point range in the playoffs.

But while the Knicks totaled just 34 paint points in Game 2, they made a high percentage of their threes to finish the win 16 of 40 (40 percent) from beyond the arc.

The result: The Heat allowed 1.16 points per possession in its zone compared to 0.77 points per possession in its man scheme on Tuesday.

While the Heat has leaned on its man-to-man defense more lately, the zone is a major part of its defensive package.

The Heat set a new modern-day NBA record for the most zone possessions played in a single regular season this season. Miami used its zone defense for 1,545 possessions this regular season.

The injury issues forced the Heat to use its fourth different starting lineup in seven playoff games.

With two starters out on Tuesday, the Heat went with a starting lineup of Vincent, Strus, Martin, Kevin Love and Adebayo.

Martin started in Butler’s place. It marked Martin’s 50th start of the season but his first start since the Heat’s final game before the All-Star break in a Feb. 15 loss to the Brooklyn Nets.

Martin, who was a regular in the Heat’s starting lineup before the addition of Love during the mid-February All-Star break, finished with 22 points and eight rebounds.

The Vincent-Strus-Martin-Love-Adebayo lineup had not played a single second together before starting Tuesday’s game. This group was a plus-one in 16 minutes together in Game 2.