Guard Terry Rozier went off in the Heat’s 109-99 win over the Knicks in a game with NBA playoff implications. Rozier scored 34 points, including a 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer in the final minute.
Miami (42-33) inched closer to a playoff spot and perhaps getting out of the play-in tournament. The Heat trail the Pacers by just a half-game for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.
Along with that, the Heat enabled the idle Magic to move a half-game ahead of the Knicks for the fourth spot in the East.
The Knicks (44-31) fell a half-game back of the Magic for the fourth seed in the NBA East, and if the playoffs were to start today, the teams would face each other in the first round. Only now, Orlando would have home-court advantage.
Not that any of that really matters. New York still has seven games left and when the race is this close, anything can happen.
Coach Doc Rivers was none-too-pleased after the Bucks lost to the Wizards in Washington on Tuesday. Milwaukee is now 18-20 on the road.
Rivers indicated a team that intends to compete for a championship needs to be better than that.
“We don’t bring the necessary professionalism, seriousness, on the road,” he told reporters. “That’s something that we can fix. That’s something that we’re going to have to fix.”
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