3 Knicks to blame for tough series loss to Heat

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The New York Knicks knocked out the Cleveland Cavaliers with a resounding 4-1 series victory in their first-round playoff series, but didn’t have the same success in the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Miami Heat. The Knicks fought back, but in the end they didn’t have what it took to defeat a battle-tested Heat team, and they ended up being knocked out 4-2 after losing Game 6 on Friday night.

It was a pretty lousy offensive streak for both teams, but the Knicks saw pretty much everything that went right for them against the Cavs turned bad for them against the Heat. They struggled to create a consistent source of offense outside of Jalen Brunson, and with no one else contributing consistently, Miami finally got past them.

While the Knicks have managed to exceed expectations in some ways this season, no one will be happy with how their season ended and ended in the playoffs. As a result, this could be an interesting offseason as the team needs to figure out how to take the next step forward. But before turning our attention to the offseason, let’s first look back and see which three players were most responsible for the Knicks’ loss to the Heat.

Mitchell Robinson certainly isn’t the most important player to the Knicks’ success, but he’s failed to make a real impact in this series. Robinson had a big height advantage over everyone on the Heat, which should have allowed him to anchor the paint at both ends of the floor. Instead, Bam Adebayo has been working it for pretty much the entire series.

Robinsons’ stats per game aren’t particularly impressive (5.2 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 0.7 APG, 55 FG%) as he failed to capitalize on easy opportunities to score paint points and often obstructed the lanes of his teammates as he failed to score. Defensively, Robinson, who is one of the best shot blockers in the league, didn’t even average one block per game, which was another huge disappointment for New York.

Again, Robinson isn’t the main reason for New York’s struggles in this series, but his team needed him a lot more. Robinsons flaws were on full display throughout this series, which isn’t particularly good for a guy who seems determined to exaggerate his impact whenever he can. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for him with the Knicks this offseason.

RJ Barrett always shows how good he can be, only to counter that by going through periods where he seems unplayable. That was a pretty accurate summary of this series for Barrett, and fans are starting to wonder whether or not he’s actually capable of being a key part of a championship-caliber team.

Barretts’ numbers in this series were pretty much what you’d expect him to (20.8 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.8 APG, 42.7 FG%) and while he had some good outings, he also had stretches where, again, he just looked like he didn’t belong anywhere near the New York court. This continues a shocking pattern of inconsistency that Barrett experienced again and again early in his career.

The main reason Barrett is on this list, however, is because of his exit in Game 6 (11 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST, 1/10 FGM) which may have cost New York a chance to send that back to Madison Square Garden for Game 7. If Barrett had made his shots, there’s a good chance the Knicks would win this game. Instead, Barrett will enter the offseason with an awful taste in his mouth that will likely stick around for months.

Since joining the Knicks, Julius Randle has been, statistically speaking, the worst playoff player in the NBA. He hasn’t done much throughout this series to dispel that notion either. Randle may have dealt with an ankle injury, but that doesn’t justify his atrocious streak against the Heat.

Randles’ stats per game over five games (he missed Game 1) will show you right away why the Knicks lost this streak (18.8 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 4.2 APG, 41.1 FG% ). Randle is one of the Knicks’ best players, if not the best. Yet he completely disappeared against Miami, missing tons of shots, showing no effort on either side of the ball and generally looking like he didn’t want to play for New York.

Even if he wanted to hide from his poor performance, there would be no way that would be possible in New York’s crazy sports media industry. When one of your star players plays as badly as Randle just played, you have next to no chance of winning in the playoffs. You can’t blame just one player for a team’s struggles, but Randle has been a huge disappointment in this series, and his future with the Knicks could suddenly be up in the air.

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