The impressive playoff run continues. Takeaways from Heat’s Game 1 win over Knicks in New York

The playoff matchups of yesteryear between the Miami Heat and New York Knicks that built the rivalry were hard-fought games that turned into instant classics. More than 20 years later, the Heat and Knicks are still producing memorable playoff moments.

Despite falling behind by as many as 12 points in the first half, the eighth-seeded Heat completed another comeback to escape with a 108-101 win over the fifth-seeded Knicks in Game 1 of their second-round playoff series on Sunday afternoon at Madison Square Garden.

“We were expecting this game to be like this,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s going to be a cage fight. It’s clean competitive basketball. We have great respect for the Knicks and how they operate and how they compete.”

With the win, the Heat stole home-court advantage to take a 1-0 lead in the series. Miami is looking to become just the second No. 8 seed to make it to the conference finals since the current 16-team NBA playoff format was instituted for the 1983-84 season.

But there was a scary moment for the Heat in the victory.

While driving into the paint and drawing a foul on Knicks guard Josh Hart with 5:05 left in the fourth quarter, Heat star Jimmy Butler rolled his right ankle and immediately grabbed it in pain. Butler remained on the court for a few minutes and the Heat was forced to call timeout before Butler limped very slowly back to the bench.

Butler was able to stay in the game, but the injury will be worth monitoring ahead of Game 2 as he limped around the court for the final few minutes of Game 1.

Butler ended Sunday’s win with a team-high 25 points to go with 11 rebounds, four assists and two steals in 43 minutes. He shot 8 of 16 from the field and 9 of 11 from the foul line.

The Heat entered halftime facing a five-point deficit, but began the third quarter on a 24-11 run to pull ahead by eight points with 5:34 left in the period. Kevin Love’s elite outlet passing ability fueled the surge, finding Butler for three easy baskets in transition during the run.

The Heat led the rest of the way, as New York cut the deficit to three points with 4:53 remaining in the fourth quarter but Miami responded with a game-sealing 7-0 run to push its lead up to 10 with 2:53 to play.

“In the second half, we were able to get a lot more defensive stops and it took a little bit of pressure off our offense and then we made some timely plays,” Spoelstra said. “It probably started with Kevin Love’s rebounding and outlet passes. We were able to get some relief points, which are tough to get against this team.”

The Knicks, which were playing without All-Star forward Julius Randle because of a sprained ankle, shot just 7 of 34 (20.6 percent) from three-point range in the loss.

The Heat didn’t have a great three-point shooting night, finishing 13 of 39 (33.3 percent) from beyond the arc but still outscored the Knicks 39-21 from three-point range because of New York’s shooting struggles.

Knicks guard Jalen Brunson finished with 25 points, five rebounds and seven assists and Knicks forward RJ Barrett recorded 26 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.

But it wasn’t enough to overcome the Heat’s balanced effort that included another quality performance from Butler, 20 points and five assists from Gabe Vincent, 16 points and eight rebounds from Bam Adebayo, and 18 points, five rebounds, six assists and four blocks from Kyle Lowry.

Game 2 of the series is Tuesday in New York (7:30 p.m., TNT).

Five takeaways from the Heat’s Game 1 win over the Knicks on Sunday:

The ankle injury will dominate the headlines, but Butler was again very good to open the second round.

With the Knicks using Hart as his primary defender, Butler closed Game 1 with a team-high 25 points and 11 rebounds. The Heat outscored the Knicks by nine points with Butler on the court.

Butler was able to generate opportunities at the rim, with some of them coming in transition off pretty outlet passes from Love. Butler finished 6 of 9 at the rim on Sunday.

Butler averaged an incredible 37.6 points while shooting 59.7 percent on 23.8 field-goal attempts in the first round of the playoffs against the Milwaukee Bucks. It’s the most points that a Heat player has averaged in a single playoff series in franchise history.

Butler probably won’t continue that historic pace because the Knicks’ defensive scheme won’t allow him to.

Even with Hart holding his own against Butler at times, he also received plenty of help. Whenever Butler drove into the paint, the Knicks made sure to send help to try to force the ball out of his hands as opposed to the Bucks’ reluctance to throw extra defenders at Butler in the first round.

Who did the Heat use to defend Brunson? Butler took on that challenge to start the game and Caleb Martin also spent time on him.

The 6-foot-7 Butler opened Game 1 on the 6-foot-2 Brunson. And then the 6-foot-5 Martin, upon entering the game, took his turn as Brunson’s primary defender.

But Brunson worked to get Butler and Martin off of him whenever he could, calling for screens to get weaker and/or smaller Heat defenders to switch on to him. Sometimes it was Heat forward Max Strus that found himself switching on to Brunson, and other times it was Lowry or Vincent.

For the most part, the Heat was able to keep Brunson under control.

Brunson, who averaged 24 points per game in the first round, finished Sunday’s loss with 25 points and seven assists. But the 25 points came on 23 field-goal attempts and he shot 0 of 7 from three-point range.

In fact, 10 of Brunson’s 11 field-goal makes came from inside the paint. He shot 1 of 10 from outside the paint.

It wasn’t just Brunson. The Knicks, as a team, struggled from three-point range in Game 1.

The Knicks started just 3 of 21 (14.3 percent) from three-point range and finished 7 of 34 (20.6 percent) from deep.

The breakdown:

Brunson shot 0 of 7 from deep.

Obi Toppin shot 4 of 11 on threes.

Barrett shot 1 of 5 from three-point range.

Hart shot 0 of 4 from beyond the arc.

Immanuel Quickley shot 1 of 4 from deep.

Quentin Grimes shot 1 of 3 from three-point range.

It marked the Knicks’ worst team three-point shooting percentage in a playoff game when attempting at least 30 threes in franchise history.

The only reason the game was even close is because the Knicks outscored the Heat 62-38 in the paint.

The Knicks closed the first half with 40 paint points, which is the most they’ve scored in a playoff half in more than 25 years, according to ESPN Stats & Info. But the Heat was able to slow the Knicks in the second half, limiting New York to 22 points in the paint in the final two quarters.

“At the point of the attack, we were much more competitive in the second half,” Spoelstra said. “Caleb, Jimmy, Gabe, Bam in those moments and then Kyle in the fourth quarter made three or four just veteran physical heady plays, savvy plays defensively that you can’t really teach.”

The veteran duo of Love and Lowry made a big impact for the Heat.

Love, who joined the Heat during the mid-February All-Star break, finished with nine points on 2-of-5 shooting from three-point range, five rebounds and four assists in a starting role.

Lowry, who dealt with left knee issues for most of the regular season, closed with 18 points, five rebounds, six assists, one steal and four blocks in 30 minutes off the bench. He joined Kevin McHale as the only players in NBA history to record at least 15 points, five rebounds, five assists and four blocks off the bench in a playoff game, according to StatMuse.

“They just stabilize everything,” Spoelstra said of Love and Lowry. “It’s unspoken, but they give your group confidence. They’ve been in these situations before. They love to compete.”

Along with Lowry’s impressive stat line, Martin contributed nine points off the Heat’s bench.

The Heat’s reserves combined to outscore the Knicks’ bench 30-15 in Game 1.

The Heat and Knicks were already each missing a starter in Game 1.

The Heat remained without starting guard Tyler Herro after he broke his right hand in Game 1 of its first-round series against the Bucks on April 16.

The Knicks were missing Randle after he re-sprained his left ankle in a series-clinching win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round on Wednesday.

The problem for the Heat is Randle is considered day-to-day and will likely return at some point in the series. But Herro is not expected to return until the NBA Finals, at the earliest, if the Heat makes it that far.

Randle, who was named an All-Star this season, led the Knicks in scoring in the regular season with 25.1 points per game. He also averaged 10 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game.

After missing the final five games of the regular season with the same injury, Randle started all five first-round games. He averaged 14.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and three assists per game in the first round of the playoffs against the Cavaliers before leaving Game 5 early.

Toppin started in Randle’s place on Sunday.

Along with missing Randle, the Knicks were without Jericho Sims (right shoulder surgery) in Game 1.

The Heat was without Herro and Victor Oladipo (torn patellar tendon) in Game 1.