Miami Heat forward Andrew Wiggins (22) tries to get the ball from New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) while Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. (11) guards during the second half of a game on Nov. 17, 2025, at Kaseya Center in Miami.
askowronski@miamiherald.com
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 115-113 win over the New York Knicks (8-5) on Monday night at Kaseya Center to snap a two-game skid and begin a quick two-game homestand. Next up for the Heat (8-6) is a matchup against Jimmy Butler and the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday in Miami:
After falling to the Knicks in New York on Friday, the Heat came back to Miami and defeated the Knicks three days later.
The Heat remained without its leading duo of Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro on Monday. Adebayo missed his sixth straight game because of a left big toe sprain and Herro has yet to play this season after undergoing left ankle surgery in September.
The Knicks were also without two of their best players, as OG Anunoby (left hamstring strain) and Jalen Brunson (sprained right ankle) were unavailable on Monday. Brunson also missed Friday’s game against the Heat and Anunoby tweaked his hamstring early in Friday’s victory over the Heat.
But like Friday’s game at Madison Square Garden, the Heat and Knicks still produced a competitive affair on Monday in Miami.
Monday’s first half included seven lead changes and five ties before the Heat entered halftime with a 55-51 lead.
The teams continued to trade punches in a back-and-forth third quarter that featured four lead changes and three ties that ended with the Heat entering the fourth quarter with an 83-82 advantage.
Then there were 10 lead changes in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter before the Heat finally created some separation from the Knicks down the stretch.
After New York pulled ahead by one point with 6:28 left in the fourth quarter, Miami went on a 14-3 run to take a 10-point lead with 3:10 to play.
The Knicks didn’t go away quietly, though, responding with an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to one with 22.4 seconds to play.
With the Heat then having possession of the ball, the Knicks intentionally fouled guard Davion Mitchell with 21.4 seconds left. But Mitchell only made one of the two free throws, putting Miami ahead by two points.
The Knicks then appeared to tie the game, as a goal-tending violation was called on Heat center Kel’el Ware on a five-foot shot by Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns with 13.2 seconds remaining.
But after the officials reviewed the play, the call was reversed to a legal block by Ware.
With the ball loose at the time of the goal-tending call, there was a jump ball between the two teams to determine possession.
The Knicks won the jump ball and had one final chance to tie or win the game in regulation, but could not take advantage.
Knicks guard Miles McBride missed a four-foot shot with five seconds to play.
Towns grabbed the offensive rebound to give New York another chance. But Towns missed an eight-foot look with 5.3 seconds left before coming away with another offensive rebound and then missing another 12-foot attempt with 3.2 seconds remaining.
Mitchell grabbed the defensive rebound for the Heat just before the final buzzer sounded to clinch the win.
“That’s a very makeable shot by Towns on the baseline,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But you know how I think. I think there’s like a karma to the game sometimes. And I think we did a lot of things to earn it.”
Seven Heat players finished with double-digit points.
Norman Powell led Miami with a team-high 19 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field. But he missed all three of his three-point attempts, finishing a game with zero made threes for the first time this season.
Mitchell ended the night with 18 points, three rebounds and five assists.
Ware totaled 16 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks.
Simone Fontecchio added 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting from three-point range.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. finished with 13 points, one rebound and four assists.
Pelle Larsson was impressive, closing with 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Dru Smith tallied 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting from behind the arc, three rebounds, three assists and one steal.
“It still comes down to just competitors finding a way to win,” Spoelstra added. “It doesn’t have to go perfect. It never will go perfect. It never will just be exactly how you want it to go. And then ultimately you just have to figure out, as a group of competitors, how to put your fingerprints on a game and then come out with big plays to secure a W. And we made some big plays going down the stretch.
For the Knicks, McBride finished with a game-high 25 points on 10-of-23 shooting from the field and 5-of-12 shooting from three-point range. Mikal Bridges contributed 23 points, and Towns totaled 22 points and 15 rebounds.
The Heat is now 2-1 against the Knicks this season, with their fourth and final matchup of the season coming on Dec. 21 in New York.
“Finding different opportunities, different ways to dig out a win is important,” Powell said. “Especially as we get deeper into the season, you want to win these close battles. Especially with a team like that, and how close the standings are right now. These wins are all important. So it was a good bounce-back game for us. They fought, we fought. But we were able to hold strong and figure it out.”
The rebounding wasn’t as big of a factor this time around … until the final possession of the game.
After the Knicks grabbed 20 offensive rebounds in Friday’s matchup, the Heat limited the Knicks to 11 offensive rebounds on Monday. Miami even outscored New York in second-chance points, 21-15, on Monday.
But the Knicks came up with some timely offensive rebounds that could have been damaging for the Heat.
Towns grabbed two offensive rebounds on the final possession of the fourth quarter, giving New York a couple extra opportunities to tie or win the game. However, Towns missed both shots that would have tied the score in the final seconds after coming away with those offensive rebounds.
Monday still represents a step forward for the Heat, which entered Monday with the NBA’s second-worst defensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available defensive rebounds a team grabs) this season at 66.1%.
The Heat grabbed 68.5% of the available defensive rebounds in Monday’s win over the Knicks. Ware finished with a team-high 14 rebounds.
But the Heat has still lost the offensive rebounding battle in eight straight games.
The Heat’s rebounding has been especially bad since Adebayo went out with a sprained toe.
The Heat entered Monday with the NBA’s 28th-ranked defensive rebounding percentage at 61% over the first five games that Adebayo missed after recording the NBA’s 14th-ranked defensive rebounding percentage at 69.8% with Adebayo available for the first eight games of the season.
Further proof of the Adebayo effect: The Heat entered Monday with a defensive rebounding percentage of 74% when Adebayo is on the court for a number that would rank second-best in the NBA among teams this season. Without Adebayo on the court, the Heat’s defensive rebounding percentage plummets to 62.3% for a number that would rank as the worst in the league among teams this season.
The Knicks again threw zone defense at the Heat’s new-look offense. At times, the Heat struggled to find answers but then seemed to have success against it for a stretch.
The Heat is among the teams that have seen the most zone defense this season, as opponents try to slow down Miami’s fast-pace offense.
The zone worked for stretches on Monday, but the Heat found some success against the Knicks’ zone late in the game. With the Knicks in zone for a chunk of the fourth quarter, Miami was able to score 22 paint points in the final period.
“The zone is meant to slow us down,” Powell said. “So the way you beat the zone is beating it before it gets set up and then attacking it once they do.”
The Heat expects to see more zone defense moving forward.
“Teams are definitely going to see that the zone works and slows us down a little bit,” Powell said. “So we’ve got to be able to execute at a high level.”
The Heat’s young duo of Ware and forward Nikola Jovic had very different nights.
Ware held his own against a talented and big Knicks frontcourt, as the 21-year-old 7-footer contributed 16 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks in his sixth straight start for the sidelined Adebayo. It marked Ware’s fifth straight double-digit rebound game and his fourth straight double-double performance.
Ware was a factor from the start, totaling six points and six rebounds in the first 6:13 of the game. He then recorded five points, four rebounds and one block in the fourth quarter.
“Kel’el was very impactful in those last several minutes, and that’s certainly growth,” Spoelstra said.
But the 22-year-old Jovic again struggled, finishing Monday’s win with five points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting on threes in 15 minutes off the Heat’s bench.
Jovic is averaging 4.5 points on 25.9 percent shooting from the field and 2-of-14 (14.3 percent) shooting from three-point range over the last four games.
Miami Heat center Kel’el Ware (7) reacts to scoring during the second half of a game against the New York Knicks on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025, at the Kaseya Center in downtown Miami, Fla. Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
One player who wasn’t on the Heat’s bench on Monday was rookie guard Kasparas Jakucionis.
Jakucionis, who missed time in the preseason and the first seven regular-season games with a groin injury, is out of the Heat’s rotation and is still waiting to make his NBA debut.
So the Heat sent Jakucionis to its G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, this past weekend to get some game action under his belt as part of his ongoing development.
Jakucionis’ first G League game was a bit shaky, as he totaled 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 shooting on threes, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and 6 turnovers in the Skyforce’s loss to the Windy City Bulls on Sunday.
Jakucionis, 19, will have a few more opportunities to play in G League games this week. The Skyforce plays three games this week (Tuesday vs. Cleveland Charge, Friday at Wisconsin Herd and Saturday at Herd).
Jakucionis was taken by the Heat with the 20th pick in the first round of this year’s NBA Draft.
“The most important thing right now is he just needs to play,” Spoelstra said Monday of sending Jakucionis to the G League for a stretch of games. “It’s not even necessarily about evaluating him right now. He had some good weeks during the summer. And then it was just unfortunate that he had the injury.
“He even asked me, ‘What do I need to work on?’ And I was like, ‘Don’t stress out about that right now.’ It’s about getting out there and playing, and then we’ll take that next step when it comes. But I thought there were some good minutes there. It was a tough loss. But we’ll build on that.”
Also unavailable for the Heat on Monday were Adebayo, Herro, Myron Gardner (G League) and Terry Rozier (not with team).
This story was originally published November 17, 2025 at 10:10 PM.
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Anthony Chiang
Miami Herald
Anthony Chiang covers the Miami Heat for the Miami Herald. He attended the University of Florida and was born and raised in Miami.
