Lupica: Heat prove Melo & Co. just Garden variety

Lupica: Heat prove Melo & Co. just Garden variety

Ron Antonelli/New York Daily News

Heat shooting guard Dwyane Wade puts in a layup over Knicks center Tyson Chandler for two of his 20 points. 

There was a moment Thursday night when the Knicks were making their only real run of this series, when they were going 30-10 on the Miami Heat and getting out to a 40-29 lead before the end of the first half, a time when the Garden tricked itself into believing that the Knicks had a chance in this game, in this series, when you remembered what this place was like when the Knicks actually had a chance in a series like this, when they had the chops to go up against great players and great teams and win.

Not anymore.

PHOTOS: KNICKS GO COLD VS. HEAT IN GAME 3 LOSS

Oh, maybe they could have gotten a game off Miami if Iman Shumpert hadnt gotten hurt and if Jeremy Lin were still in the game. But they werent going to beat the Heat this season, not going to beat them next season. So now the Knicks have lost 13 straight playoff games going back to April of 2001. A night that started out big and loud and excited at the Garden ended up sounding like next season is already here, ended with the Heat and the great LeBron James showing you just how far away the Knicks are from being a real contender.

Understand something: The Knicks got beat, 87-70, by the Heats C game Thursday night. From the time the Knicks were ahead by that 40-29 at the end of the first half, they scored 30 points the rest of the game. LeBron had a terrible first half, turned the ball over, spent an awful lot of time growling at the refs. Didnt matter. Didnt matter that he had to sit down with four fouls (seven minutes and change left in the third quarter) because there was Dwyane Wade to remind you why he is the greatest wing man in the game.

HEAT IS ON: KNICKS BURIED AT MSG, 87-70, MIAMI TAKES 3-0 SERIES LEAD

Wade scored 20 without breaking a sweat. LeBron James ended up with 32 points in Game 3 and he shut down Carmelo Anthony any time he had to guard him, because one of the things they never talk about with LeBron is that he has been the best on-the-ball defender in the NBA for a while.

No. 6 of the Heat scored 32 points in 32 minutes in Game 1 and 32 in 36 minutes Thursday night. He had five assists Thursday, eight rebounds. And when the Knicks were still in the game or thought they were in the game at the start of the fourth quarter, this is how James showed the place he was back in the game:

Made a 3-pointer, got inside and got a third-chance putback on the offensive boards, made another three. Just like that he had done it to the Knicks the way Michael Jordan used to. Best player in the game came back, Wade said. Just like that, it was 66-56. The night was supposed to be about the old-fashioned roar of the Garden, only now it was as if the Heat just began to clear its throats. You knew the Knicks were gone.