The New York Knicks play the Miami Heat and LeBron James on Sunday at AmericanAirlines Arena. The NBA game will be FREE Live Streaming Online at 1:00 PM ET
After facing mainly lottery-bound opponents in the past five games, the potentially short-handed Heat now try to maintain their slim lead in the Eastern Conference by taking on a string of teams that are either headed to the playoffs or contending for berths.
Miami (52-23) has played without Dwyane Wade (hamstring) and Greg Oden (back spasms) for the last five games but has managed to pull percentage points ahead of Indiana. The Heat have won four of five in that stretch, which featured four opponents that are currently eliminated from playoff contention.
The Heat have two games in hand on the Pacers, who host Atlanta on Sunday night. Indiana will face two eliminated teams in its final five games while the Heat will take on six straight opponents that are no worse than ninth in their respective conferences.
New York (33-44) is in ninth, one game behind Atlanta. The Knicks were percentage points ahead of the Hawks on Wednesday after winning their third in a row but fell 90-89 to Washington on Friday.
Atlanta, which currently holds the tiebreaker because of its better conference record, beat Cleveland that same night.
Carmelo Anthony re-aggravated a right shoulder injury that he said he suffered in a 110-81 rout of Brooklyn on Wednesday. The Knicks star committed a season-high nine turnovers Friday and was held to 10 points, his lowest total of 2013-14, but said afterward that "there was no way I was coming out."
"For sure, I'll be there Sunday," Anthony said. "... We've been up against the wall this whole time. ... We've got some pretty good wins on the road. We want to keep it up. We've got five games left to try to make this happen."
Anthony, averaging 27.7 points on the season, has averaged 34.0 in his last seven regular-season games against the Heat and had 29 in the most recent matchup Feb. 27 in Miami.
The game will be streaming live free on www.nbalivestreamfree.net
