After the Miami Heat's bad loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night, the team has a chance to bounce back with its next two games against the New York Knicks. With the Heat coming off the disappointing loss to the Cavs, the team fell to a squad missing key players, as the same will happen on Friday.

The Knicks will be without star Jalen Brunson due to a Grade 1 ankle sprain and will miss Friday's game, and potentially Monday as well. However, Miami will need to be on their toes in falling to an undermanned team just recently, as Davion Mitchell would even say that New York could be “more dangerous” without Brunson and explains why that may be.

“Yeah, I mean, him being out actually kind of makes them a little bit more dangerous too, just because of, they move the ball more,” Mitchell said, via Heat Central on X, formerly Twitter, credited to the team. “They're not really stagnant, they got guys defensively who can really guard, like Miles McBride, who can really guard, but also just offensive rebound. I think that's kind of probably gonna be their mindset, especially as the past few games we played, is going there and trying to punk us on the offensive rebounds and trying to change the game in that way. So we got to do a better job of just rebounding and getting out in running.”

Miami does not want to replicate what happened on Wednesday, as after the excitement of Monday's overtime thrilling win against a healthy Cleveland team, they would lose to a squad without Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Darius Garland.

Heat's Norman Powell on prior success against the Knicks

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Miami Heat guard Norman Powell (24) looks on against the Cleveland Cavaliers during the third quarter at Kaseya Center.
Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

As the Heat look for consistency, the team has already captured a win over the Knicks this season, who had Brunson at the time, with a 115-107 win on Oct. 26, one of Miami's highlight wins to start the year. That would be star Norman Powell's first win with Miami against the Knicks, scoring 29 points that night, but beating them isn't new for the veteran, as he's 19-3 throughout his career, reacting to the statistic.

“I didn't even know the record,” Powell said. “It's always a fun place to play in. You know, the atmosphere is always lively, whether they're booing you or booing them, depending on what it is, because this fan base is really intense, but it's always a great time at MSG. You know, I think we're ready for it. Haven't played an in-season tournament here, so I know it's going to be a little added extra edge, especially with the rivalry that these two teams have. So I think it's going to be a good game to hopefully win and push that to 20.”

At any rate, Miami looks to get the bad taste out of their mouths after Wednesday's frustrating loss to Cleveland and looks to continue their winning ways against the Knicks on Friday night and Monday. The Friday game will be a part of the NBA's in-season tournament, as the Heat are on the quest to capture the NBA Cup, already off to a 1-0 start in group play.