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Without any doubts, the Heat’s front-office is fairly pleased with the performance of Erik Spoelstra’s squad in the opening six weeks of this year’s NBA campaign. Thus, Dwayne Wade and company will make their way to New York to face the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Christmas Day at 5 p.m. GMT.

Albeit the Knicks struggled in the opening weeks, Mike D’Antonis squad improved considerably and was able to win 6 of their last 10 to get back into the playoff race. Surprisingly, New York’s run happened right after Nate Robinson was benched at the end of November. Given the fact that the reigning NBA Slam Dunk champion averaged nearly 20 points per game in 2008-09, it will be interesting to see what the franchise’s front-office might do if the situation remains unresolved. After all, Robinson is on an expiring contract and has considerable trade value around the league. One issue thus far has been New York Knicks sub par defense as they rank at the bottom of the league with 105 points allowed per contest. Albeit it should be noted that the Knicks play up-tempo basketball that inevitably leads to high scoring games, they will have to tighten up their defense in order to have a shot at making it to the post-season.

In contrast, the Heat turned out to be one of the better defensive teams in the league and secured most of their wins due to successfully containing their opponents rather than putting up big numbers themselves. Considering that the franchise did very little over the summer to strengthen the support cast around All-Star Dwayne Wade, Miami Heat certainly played up to its potential so far. Holding on to the fifth place in the Eastern Conference and a 13-11 record, the Heat look like they are on their way to another playoff appearance in 2009-10. Offensively, Wade led the team putting up 26.6 points, 6.0 assists, 5.2 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks in 38 minutes per game. Thus, it appears to be a justified assumption that Miami could very well be able to steal one on the road when they head to Madison Square Garden on Friday. That said, it is not beyond the realms of reality that the Knicks might be able to secure a win at home if they bring their A-game and contain D-Wade to some extent.

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