Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the New York Knicks looks to pass over Nikola Jovic #5 of the Miami Heat in the first quarter at Madison Square Garden on November 14, 2025 in New York City. Elsa Getty Images
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 140-132 loss to the New York Knicks (8-4) on Friday night at Madison Square Garden to close this single-game trip at 0-1 and fall to 1-1 during the four-game group-stage of the NBA Cup in-season tournament. The Heat (7-6) now has two days off before another matchup with the Knicks on Monday at Kaseya Center to begin a two-game homestand:
Both teams were missing key players, but the Heat and Knicks still produced an ultra-entertaining game that ultimately went to the Knicks.
The Heat remained without its leading duo of Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro despite both traveling to New York for Friday’s contest. Adebayo missed his fifth straight game because of a left big toe sprain and Herro has yet to play this season after undergoing left ankle surgery in September.
On the other side, Knicks star guard Jalen Brunson missed his first game after spraining his right ankle in Wednesday’s loss to the Orlando Magic. The Knicks then lost starting forward OG Anunoby for the night midway through Friday’s first quarter because of a strained left hamstring, and he didn’t return.
But the Heat and Knicks still combined for 272 points and 40 made threes. It’s the most total points ever scored in a Heat-Knicks matchup.
It was a competitive game at the start, as the first half included 11 lead changes and four ties. The Heat led by as many as seven points in the first quarter before the Knicks caught fire for 46 points on 10-of-13 shooting from three-point range in the second quarter to enter halftime ahead by 10 points.
The Knicks led for the entire third quarter, but the Heat won the period 36-32 to cut the deficit to six points entering the fourth quarter.
But the Knicks responded to the Heat’s third-quarter push by opening the fourth quarter on a 15-6 run to extend their lead to 15 points and break open the game.
The Heat could never get back into it, as the closest it got in the final minutes was within eight points.
Without Brunson and Anunoby, the Knicks got big performances from center Karl-Anthony Towns and their bench.
Towns totaled 31 points in the first half on his way to finishing the Knicks’ win with a game-high 39 points on 13-of-26 shooting from the field, 6-of-14 shooting on threes and 7-of-9 shooting from the foul line, 11 rebounds and four assists.
Shamet recorded 36 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field, 6-of-12 shooting on threes and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line in 37 minutes off the Knicks’ bench.
Jordan Clarkson added 24 points off the Knicks’ bench.
With Clarkson and Shamet combining for 60 points, New York’s reserves outscored Miami’s bench 75-39.
“We got to make sure that none of their X factors are able to have a game like that,” Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “Obviously, KAT had the big first half and a lot of attention was drawn to him. But that doesn’t mean those other guys can’t play. We got to take and handle business. We weren’t able to accomplish that tonight and we look to be better Monday.”
The Heat was led by Norman Powell, who finished with 38 points.
Jaquez Jr. added 23 points, nine rebounds and seven assists off the Heat’s bench.
The Heat lost despite shooting 19 of 44 (43.2 percent) from three-point range on Friday.
The Heat’s offensive rebounding struggles without Adebayo continue.
Heat coaches and players know the team must be better on the defensive glass in Adebayo’s absence. It has been a point of emphasis in practices, shootaround and meetings.
The numbers don’t lie, as opponents have dominated the Heat in the rebounding battle lately.
Entering Friday’s contest in New York, the Heat had posted the NBA’s 27th-ranked defensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available defensive rebounds a team grabs) at 61.6% during the first four games of Adebayo’s absence after recording the NBA’s 14th-ranked defensive rebounding percentage at 69.8% with Adebayo available for the first eight games of the season.
Those issues continued on Friday, as the Knicks grabbed 20 offensive rebounds. New York came away with eight of those offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter.
Knicks center Mitchell Robinson led the charge with eight offensive rebounds on Friday.
“I mean those plays are just like deflating plays,” Heat guard Davion Mitchell said of the Knicks’ offensive rebounds. “They got a lot of 50-50 balls that turned into threes, a lot of 50-50 balls that we could have got in transition and scored.”
The Heat still somehow outscored the Knicks 23-20 in second-chance points despite finishing with five fewer offensive rebounds than the Knicks.
“It’s costing us games now,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the team’s lack of rebounding. “That’s where we are and we’ve said it enough that we have to fix it.
Heat guard Norman Powell turned in another impressive performance, but he couldn’t beat the Knicks again.
Powell fell to 19-4 against the Knicks during his NBA career and is now 11-2 in his last 13 matchups against the Knicks.
After scoring 15 points in the first half, Powell closed a team-high 38 points on 12-of-22 shooting from the field and 8-of-15 shooting from three-point range in 33 minutes.
Powell has now finished with 20 or more points in nine of the first 10 games he has played in this season.
“I care about the win. It doesn’t matter how much I score, what happens if we come home with an L,” Powell said when asked about another standout individual stat line. “I’m not a stats guy. I want Ws. So it’s more about what I got to do better. I made some mistakes defensively and I have to be one of the guys to help rebound.
The Heat’s chances of advancing past the group stage of the NBA Cup took a hit.
With Friday’s loss to the Knicks, the Heat fell to 1-1 during the four-game group stage of the league’s in-season tournament.
The Heat’s five-team group includes the Heat, Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Hornets.
With the NBA’s 30 teams randomly drawn into six groups of five within their conference based on win-loss records from the 2024-25 regular season, the winner of each of the six groups and two wild cards (the team from each conference with the best record in group play that finished second in its group) — a total of eight teams — will advance to the knockout single-elimination rounds of the NBA Cup.
If two or more teams are tied within a group, the tie among the teams will be broken according to the following tiebreakers (in sequential order): head-to-head record in group play, point differential in group play, total points scored in group play, regular-season record from last regular season and random drawing. Overtime scoring will not count towards the point differential and total points tiebreakers.
If two or more teams are tied for the wild card in a conference, the tie among the teams will be broken following the same tiebreaker protocol, with the exception of the head-to-head record in group play. Ties within groups will be broken before the calculation of wild card tiebreakers.
The Heat has two group-play games left to play: Nov. 21 against the Chicago Bulls at United Center and Nov. 26 against the Milwaukee Bucks at Kaseya Center.
Despite the recently added wrinkle of the in-season tourney, every team continues to play 82 regular-season games. That’s because every game in the NBA’s in-season tournament will count toward regular-season stats and standings, except the championship game.
The 22 teams not advancing to the quarterfinals will play two regular-season games on either Dec. 11 or 12 and Dec. 14 or 15 to fill the missing two games in their standard 82-game schedules.
The four teams that lose in the quarterfinals will each play a regular-season game on Dec. 11, 12, 14 or 15 to fill the missing game in their 82-game schedules.
For the four teams that win in the quarterfinals, their 82nd game will come in the semifinals.
And the two teams that advance to the championship game will play an extra game (83rd game) for the in-season tournament title that won’t count toward the regular season.
The quarterfinals will be played in NBA team markets on Dec. 9 and 10. These games will be hosted by the two teams with the best record in group play games from each conference, and the team with the best record in group play from each conference will host the wild card team in their respective conference.
The semifinals and championship game of the event will be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Dec. 13 and Dec. 16.
What’s at stake in the in-season tournament? The NBA Cup trophy and bonus money for the quarterfinalists, semifinalists, runner-up and champion.
Each player on the four teams that lose in the quarterfinals of this year’s in-season tournament will get $53,093, each player on the two teams that lose in the semifinals will get $106,187, each player on the team that loses in the championship will get $212,373 and each player on the team that’s crowned champion of the tourney will get $530,933.
The fact that Friday’s was streamed on Prime Video gave Heat icon and Prime NBA analyst Udonis Haslem an opportunity to give his thoughts on this season’s Heat team.
“I think, for me, Heat culture is about sacrificing, not knowing what the end result is going to be, but you do it anyway, because you understand that you have your heart in the right place,” Haslem said on Prime Video’s NBA pregame show on Friday. “When I look at this team, the sacrifice started in training camp. What they’re doing now, the work they put in behind the scenes, it’s no coincidence they’re running up and down. Because the work had been in training camp. We’re talking about a team who emphasized getting the ball to the other team’s free-throw line, even on a made basket, by six seconds. We’re talking about a team who is getting 44% of their shots in the first six seconds of the shot clock, improving from around 30% of the shot clock. So you have five, six, seven guys having career highs.”
Along with his role on Prime Video, Haslem has also served as the Heat’s vice president of basketball development since retiring from playing at the end of the 2022-23 season. He spent all 20 seasons of his NBA playing career with the Heat.
“Jaime Jaquez is having a career high,” Haslem continued on Prime Video’s pregame show on Friday. “We talked about Wiggs, who is not a career high in point, but is having career highs in other areas. Davion Mitchell is having career highs. We’re talking about Simo, who is having a career high shooting the basketball. We got him from Detroit. Love that pickup. Nobody even knew who he was. ... So we’re talking about an offense where everybody is a part of it. It’s fun, it’s energetic, everybody is enjoying the other people’s success. And you know if you run and sacrifice that you’re going to get the ball, that somebody is going to find you. So it’s a fun way to play. I’m enjoying watching them. But they’ve got to rebound. No rebounds, no rings fellas.”