MIAMI – Pat Riley wasn’t talking about points. But he still got points. And he also got all the other stuff he had lamented was missing from his reserves in Game 1.
“We need more from everybody coming in,” said Riley, whose bench was torpedoed by the Knick subs in Game 1 only to turn around and play a key role in last night’s series-tying, 83-73 victory. “It doesn’t necessarily have to translate into points. We’d like to get offense from Terry [Porter] and Clarence [Weatherspoon] but you’ve got to rebound, play defense, get some assists, loose balls. The impact that you make off the bench isn’t always going to manifest itself in scoring, but those two are supposed to get some offense for us.”
And they did – Porter scored 11 and Weatherspoon added nine but the bench, specifically Porter, stepped up big in crucial times, such as the final :31.8 of the third quarter.
The Knicks were coming. They had sliced a 14-point Heat lead to four, 59-55. Alonzo Mourning bumped it back to six with two from the line but on the Knicks’ next possession, Porter drew an offensive foul against Patrick Ewing at :31.8. And then Porter floated down the lane with a rainbow that drew a goal-tending call against Ewing. Miami’s lead jumped up to eight.
“We didn’t bring any intensity or poise [in Game 1]. Tonight, we did,” offered Porter, who nailed 5-of-8 shots, handed out two assists, grabbed six rebounds, defended his butt off and gave good inspiration.
“Terry Porter’s, like, what, 40 years old? And he’s out there diving for loose balls,” Mourning said.
Porter was a big part of it, but there was more to the bench in that third-quarter stand. With :01.5 left, the Knicks were inbounding under their basket. The ball went to Allan Houston for a point-blank layup but Keith Askins, who rested his thigh bruise in Game 1, came up big, rejecting Houston’s shot from behind, preserving Miami’s 63-55 lead.
“Normally, they set a pick and he comes off to the outside,” Askins said. “I was trying to push him to the outside because we were loading up that way but he shot down the lane and got a clean path to the basket. I was fortunate to get a hand on the ball.”