This game (December 6, 2012 Knicks vs. Heat) is not the first such lesson we've seen this year; but it's an excellent case in point. To reliably beat the Heat, of course you gotta do a lot of things right. 2 key areas to focus on seem to be:

1) Shoot a lot of threes. (And of course, hit a goodly percentage, as possible.) The Heat's defensive scheme tends to break when you crisply pass the ball around the perimeter, end with a 3-point shot. They like to pack the strong side and paint, and they rely on their crazy athleticism to shoot the gap when necessary. But this can't be done when the ball is flying around the perimeter and finding the open 3 -- so their defense falls apart and you end up with a bunch of clean looks from distance. Of course, it helps to also have a good penetrator who can effectively pass inside-to-outside. (Check.)

2) Station a big guy in the middle at all times to defend against their drives to the rim. Knicks did it with Tyson Chandler (who is great) and Rasheed Wallace. Yes, Sheed. Not a joke. The guy can STILL defend very well in and around the paint. (How, I don't know. And yes, he is still jacking up threes at an unconscionable rate. Went 0-6 from deep in the Heat game. But he was still valuable because of his post play, on both ends.)

End result? 20 point blowout. In Miami.

So what does this mean for us?

(a) Practice 3s. Get Bradley back for that sweet 56% corner three of his (40.7% overall 3PT% last season). With AB back, we'll have 4 decent-to-very-good 3-point shooters. (PP, JT, CL, AB.) And there's Sully, btw, who apparently hits the 3 pretty damn well too... so ya never know, we might actually have 5. Anyway, we're ok on the body count.

(b) This one is a must. We MUST get another big to help KG defend the paint. No two ways about it, it's gotta be done. Do it, Danny.

Annnnddd..... GO Cs!