Knicks fall to Heat again

It may have looked different, felt different and played out differently, but all those differences couldn't save the Knicks from a frustratingly familiar result.

Four days after a woeful first half and a lackluster performance by their bench led to a 17-point loss to the Heat in Miami, the Knicks were back at it against Chris Bosh and company Friday night.

This time they came out strong for the first half, the bench produced -- and still it wasn't enough to compensate for a third-quarter swoon in a 97-78 loss to the Heat at Madison Square Garden.

It was the Knicks' third loss in a row and dropped them under .500 at 8-9.

"We got stagnant and we tried to force the action," coach Derek Fisher said. "They're good defensively. Big up front and really make it tough for you to do the things that you like to do . . . We tried to put together a much better [first half] . . . [but] we didn't finish off the second quarter the right way, and it carried over."

The Knicks led it for the majority of the first half -- going ahead by seven points twice in the second quarter -- but the Heat tied it on Hassan Whiteside's free throw with 9:09 left in the third quarter and took the lead on his next one.

That kicked off a 14-2 run in which the Knicks went 1-for-11 from the floor and committed a shot-clock violation. Carmelo Anthony, who scored 11 points in the first half but none in the second, fouled Gerald Green beyond the arc to help the Heat open an 11-point lead with 5:01 left in the third quarter. Miami led 74-63 after three.

The Knicks shot 37.6 percent from the floor -- not much better than their effort in Monday night's 95-78 loss, in which they shot 32.2 percent.

"We don't like to lose, so I think there's concern from the standpoint that we have to do things better, do things differently," Fisher said. "We can't expect to do the same things and think the results are going to change."

Anthony had 21 points in Monday night's game, but on Friday night, he was contained. Kristaps Porzingis had 11 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots in 23:44 but also committed five fouls. Kevin Seraphin scored 10 off the bench.

Gerald Green had 25 points, Bosh 20 and Dwyane Wade 17 as Miami's starters outscored the Knicks' starters 77-32. Whiteside had 14 rebounds and six blocked shots.

Jerian Grant's finger roll in traffic was followed by Porzingis' booming alley-oop dunk from Langston Galloway as the Knicks went ahead by seven in the second quarter. But Bosh's step-back jumper gave the Heat a 50-49 halftime lead.

Things got fully out of hand in the fourth quarter, and the deflated Knicks were dealt a defining blow with 8:56 left. With the Knicks down by 10, Grant snagged a bad pass by Tyler Johnson and swung it over to Derrick Williams, who drove to the basket -- only to be denied by a loud, momentum-killing block by Bosh.

"I think we fell apart in the second half,'' Anthony said. "For whatever reason, we fell apart . . . I don't know what's missing, but we need to figure it out. It's a reality check . . . No one is going to figure it out for us.''

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She's been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.