Good evening! We're under an hour away from more Knicks basketball. They're in Miami tonight to face the Heat. Said Heat will play pretty much fully staffed:

Battier (knee), Chalmers (finger), Cole (groin), Haslem (hip) all expected to be available for Heat vs. Knicks.

The Knicks will have Jason Kidd back in the starting lineup (which means Kurt Thomas is out of it, which is probably wise against the Heat and always), but it's still unclear as of right now whether Carmelo Anthony will play. He took the court early to practice shooting with a bandaged left middle finger and will make his decision right before game time. I don't expect him to skip this one, but we'll see. This is going to be a tough one either way, what with the Heat being undefeated at home (and perhaps a little snarly following a loss to the Wizards) and the Knicks being 24 hours removed from a hard-earned victory. I think of this one as "playing with house money", as the kids say. Some better three-point shooting than last night would be nice, because those opportunities are usually there against Miami.

First place in the East is on the line, by the way.

This is your game thread. Hot Hot Hoops is here. Please don't post large photos, .gifs, or links to illegal streams in the thread. Tip-off tonight is at 8 PM and the game will be televised on TNT and TNT alone. No MSG.

Basketball!

Update: After testing his hand, Carmelo Anthony will NOT play.

Update: Starting lineup: Felton, Kidd, Brewer, Thomas, Chandler.