The Heat lost in Toronto Tuesday night, now 3 games back of Knicks heading into big matchup at MSG

The Knicks need to fend off the Brooklyn Nets and Miami Heat if they want to lock up the No. 5 seed in the East. They’re finished playing the Nets (2-2 season record), but they have a massive game against the Heat Wednesday night at MSG. If the Knicks win, they’ll clinch the season series and tiebreaker should Miami come back in the standings.

Fortunately, the Heat will be playing on the back end of a back-to-back, as they took on the Raptors in Toronto Tuesday night. Even more fortunately, the Raptors beat Miami, 106-92.

Good for you, Raptors. After all the crap you mediocre bums pulled against the Knicks this season, you owed us!

The big news in Miami Tuesday was the sudden appearance of Jimmy Butler on the injured list with a sore neck. Butler missed the Toronto game, and the Heat players were terrible except for Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo. Seriously, look at that box score!

Of course, this is still a Pat Riley team, so expect all the bums like Gabe Vincent (1-5 shooting Tuesday) and washed vets like Kevin Love (1-5 shooting Tuesday night) to bounce back in a big way at MSG. I expect Butler will play as well. The Knicks had better bring their A game.