The bad blood started when Pat Riley left New York to go run things in Miami.

Ah, move.

That led to tampering charges and a million dollar heat payout.

And then all of that escalated as the teams met.

Input playoffs four consecutive years.

We got fights, we got trash talk, we got tabloid exploits.

We got game winning buzzer beaters.

And, yes, more fights.

PJ Brown flipping Charlie Ward over his head.

Yeah, yeah, I remember that.

That turned into a thing there, right?

And then, of course, the following year, the Jeff Van Gundy special.

Personally, I don't think Alonzo Mourning's leg ever stood a chance.

Jeff, you had that one.

Yeah, really, Off course.

Thes days.

A Knicks game doesn't have quite the same kind of fire.

The two organizations have followed such different paths the past couple decades.

You can't even really call it a rivalry anymore.

And yet there was definitely a little crackle in the air when the teams met last night.

The steaks on both sides, feeling just a little higher than they did even just a few days ago.

Over on the New York bench.

It was Derrick Rose's first game since being traded back to the Knicks and move that not only reunited him with the franchise, but Tom Thibodeau, who has had Rose on yep, every single MBA team he has ever coached.

On last night, Rose paid that faith off immediately.

He dropped 10 points and three assists in just the first half, looked comfortable in the next second unit alongside fan favorite Emmanuel Quickly.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the court, the Heat saw this is a key opportunity to continue their climb back into playoff contention.

It has been an extremely rocky start to the season for the last year's Eastern Conference champions, who have struggled to put a full roster on the floor.

And last night we're still missing Goran Dragic and Avery Bradley.

Miami has used 16 different lineups in 24 games.

It is hard to build much continuity that way, and they still look shaky at times against New York, as both teams went on lopsided runs and boy were the on off numbers with Jimmy Butler.

Something to see.

With Butler on the court, the Heat outscored the Knicks by 25 points.

With Butler off the court, New York outscored Miami by 23.

Good thing for the Heat, then that Butler was there for the closing stretch.

The first time Miami come from behind and then turned into, of all things, a new old school dual marked by physical defense and high pressure trips to the line.

Here was Heat coach Erik Spoelstra describing it.

This was more of a throwback Miami Heat New York Knicks game from the nineties, Um, where there weren't a lot of open shots in the last 14 16 minutes of the game.

Um on, Do you know, it was just going You're gonna have to grind out, Ah, wind, you know, And, um, in many ways, do it.

You know, when you weren't scoring, you know, so free throws were like gold in this game on the defensive stops, you know, down stretch, where, um, we're inspiring, inspiring.

Now let's be clear.

Things did not reach Alonzo Mourning.

Patrick Ewing level physically out there last night.

In fact, the closest thing to a flagrant foul turned out to be more of a spoof.

Check out this tussle under the basket, bodies crashing to the floor and Jimmy Butler stays down holding his head.

Except, um, he can't help himself as he picks out with a little smile to see if the sell job is working.

I mean, I've studied Mark Wahlberg and how he acts so incredibly well, I've taken a few pointers.

First of all, if Jimmy was really injured, he's not peeking.

He Jimmies really injured.

Everybody know he's trying to get up and trying to walk it off.

So the fact that he was down there for so long just being Jimmy, uh, you know, I feel like that's one of those things like one of the course of the game lightens the mood.

You know, everybody gets a break, a mental break from being serious for like, 30 seconds.

Then we locked back in.

Look at that smile is you pop back up.

Butler would not get the flagrant call, but he made one of his free throws to give Miami a two point lead with six seconds to play.

And while R.

J.

Barrett actually had a pretty good chance to send this game to overtime.

Just could not put the ball in the hoop.

Another Heat Knicks game in the books.

And, no, it's not really a rivalry again yet, but sure is something fun.

And in 2021 that's enough Perk.

Three in a row now for Miami.

Do you think they will rebound from the slow start?

Absolutely, Rachel.

And the thing that the Miami Heat has is that they have culture, Okay?

They have their identity, and their identity is Is that they're gonna put their hard hats on every single night.

Hey, they has on the defensive end.

They're gonna get good ball and player movement as long as they have a two all stars and Jimmy Butler and bam out of the by you?

Yes, out of the by you.

You know, I mess up this name, so I kept it this way.

But locals, you have those two all stars on the floor.

I think the heat are in great hands.

They have a great coach and their exposure, and they're going to continue the fight.

They have great leadership in the locker room and on the bench.

And you Don.

This Haslem, Who's the captain?

I have no worries about the Miami Heat.

I feel like they will be in the thick of things called postseason time.

So I would wish that rebound the ball a little better, though.

Perk.

I think you would agree.

I think they're dead last in rebounds per game right now, and that is a measure of toughness.

So maybe that'll straighten itself out.

So many lost bodies, Covad protocols, all of these things, Rachel.

And you know, if you looked at last year in the bubble, the team you thought was gonna have the hardest time coming back from that short break, it had to be this team because of the heavy, heavy minutes that band played and that Jimmy played and Hero and Duncan to a certain extent.

So if there was one team that you would point to that say, Hey, they might struggle a bit.

This this was probably the team, and Bam is an immensely talented player.

But let's be honest.

The heartbeat of this team is Jimmy Butler and he was missing at the start of the year, and now he's back.

I'm sure he'd like to get a little more into rhythm.

He's not shooting the ball quite the way we saw in the bubble.

I hate to keep referring to the bubble, but what have you done for me lately?

That's our lead to some degree s.

Oh, I do.

I do think they're gonna come around.

But But I do think that for all the teams that started slow, including someone like the Mavericks, there might be a little bit of a price to pay here, going forward because it's a short season, right?

Right.

Every game is one out of 72 instead of one out of 82.

Now there are the playing games, right?

So he gives you a little more movement in the standings.

If you ended up in that ninth spot, it doesn't just mean you're out.

Um, it is interesting, though.

This is a team that feels, and I said this the other day, they feel like they can play from behind.

They can play from behind within games.

We saw them do it just last night, and, in fact, they showed last year they can play from behind even in the playoffs or in a season because they were the lower seeded team.

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