NEW YORK _ Erik Spoelstra was concerned about a lull. And early on he got plenty of languid and lethargic.
But he also got a victory, and at this stage of the season, that's what it's about for the Miami Heat.
In the wake of Tuesday's dramatic road victory over the Detroit Pistons in a playoff-race showdown, the Heat arrived Wednesday night to Madison Square Garden emotionally spent, but still with enough left in the tank for a 105-88 victory over the couldn't-be-less-interested New York Knicks.
At 37-38, the Heat can return to .500 for the first time since the season's second game with an encore performance when they host the Knicks on Friday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.
After failing to sustain previous thrusts, the Heat finally distanced themselves in the fourth quarter, formally eliminating the Knicks from playoff contention.
Going in, Spoelstra said, "I'm glad we're playing right away. If we had another day for everybody to exaggerate and over blow what we did yesterday and us to feel too good about ourselves, that wouldn't be a good recipe."
His players needed little convincing, amid this ever-shifting playoff race.
"I think everybody's still on edge," Spoelstra said. "We understand that this league is so fragile. It really is.
"If we don't keep on moving forward ... then we're still not where we want to be."
On a night a spark was needed, guard Josh Richardson, again starting in place of sidelined Dion Waiters, provided it, closing with 17 points.
Goran Dragic backed up his Tuesday revival with 20 points Wednesday, with James Johnson pacing the Heat bench with 18 points.
Center Hassan Whiteside, whose buzzer-beating tip-in decided Tuesday's one-point victory, started slow, found himself in foul trouble early in the third period and closed with 11 points and nine rebounds.
For the Knicks, there were nine points from a seemingly disinterested Carmelo Anthony, who shot 4 of 12, and 20 from forward Kristaps Porzingis. The game ended amid chants of, "Trade Car-mel-o."
Both teams were short-handed in their backcourt, the Heat without Waiters for a sixth consecutive game due to a severely sprained left ankle, the Knicks without Derrick Rose due to knee pain.
Richardson again started in place of Waiters, with Ron Baker starting in place of Rose.
The Knicks also were without center Joakim Noah, who began his 20-game suspension for utilizing a banned substance.
The Heat appeared poised to put it away early in the third period on a sequence that included a three-point play by Whiteside, a technical foul on Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek and another three-shot foul drawn by Dragic.
But after pushing to a 14-point lead, the Heat found themselves in foul trouble, with Rodney McGruder and Whiteside each picking up their fourth fouls less than three minutes into the third.
Through it all, the Heat managed a 77-68 lead going into the fourth.
With Richardson up to 14 points by halftime, the Heat took a 49-41 lead into the intermission.
It was an odd first half, with Anthony scoreless after taking only two first-half shots for the Knicks, and with Whiteside 1 of 5 from the field for two points over those first 24 minutes.
The eight-point halftime lead represented the Heat's largest lead of the game to that stage, with the Heat benefiting from 10 first-half Knicks turnovers.
The Heat opened like a team playing on the second night of a back-to-back set, with the Knicks playing like a team two weeks from the finish line.
The Heat pushed to an eight-point lead midway through the first period before going into the second period up 24-22, paced by seven points in the opening period by Richardson.
The Heat's highlight in the opening period was an accidental one, with a Dragic alley-oop pass intended for Willie Reed instead going in the basket.
In the wake of Tuesday heroics against the Pistons, Whiteside had only one rebound and did not even attempt a shot in his scoreless first quarter.
The Knicks were coming off Monday's 109-95 rout of the visiting Pistons, a victory that snapped a five-game losing streak.
This was the second game of the three-game season series. The Knicks won the first meeting 114-103 Dec. 6 in Miami, behind 35 points from Anthony, with Porzingis adding 14 points and 12 rebounds.
The Knicks had won two of the three previous meetings, after the Heat won the previous eight.
The Heat entered 4-1 in their previous five games at the Garden.
The game concluded a three-game trip and the Heat's 14th back-to-back set of the season, with a 5-8 record on the second nights of such pairings entering the night.
