Carmelo Anthony scored 30 points for the New York Knicks but his team still came up short as Miami's ‘Big Three' took charge to lead the Heat to a convincing 104-94 victory in the NBA playoffs Monday. Dwyane Wade top-scored for the Heat with 25 points, Chris Bosh made 21 and LeBron James had 19 plus seven rebounds and nine assists as Miami grabbed a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first round playoff series. New York's Anthony scored 15 points in the first quarter but Miami never truly looked in any danger of losing even if this was a much closer affair than its victory in Saturday's opener when it won by 33 points. For the Knicks, their 12th consecutive loss in the playoffs tied the league record and their woes were compounded with a post-game hand injury to forward Amar'e Stoudemire. Stoudemire suffered a serious cut to his left hand and had to leave the arena wearing a sling with the hand bandaged. While the team gave no details of the injury, several reports suggested he may have struck a fire extinguisher as he headed to the locker-room. The Knicks, already without injured point guard Jeremy Lin, can ill-afford to lose Stoudemire for the upcoming two games at Madison Square Garden, especially given the way the Heat performed in all areas Monday. Thunder 102, Mavericks 99: Russell Westbrook scored 29 points, Kevin Durant added 26 in an off-shooting performance and the Oklahoma City Thunder clawed out a victory over the defending champions to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Durant hit two free throws with 50.4 seconds left to give Oklahoma City a 98-97 lead, and James Harden hit four more foul shots to close it out for the Thunder. Jason Terry missed two three-point attempts from the left wing in the final five seconds that could have tied it. Dirk Nowitzki led Dallas with 31 points and Shawn Marion scored 15. The Mavericks led in the closing minutes of both road games but couldn't even manage a split. Game 3 is Thursday night in Dallas. Dallas was up seven points with 2.5 minutes left in Game 1 and just a point in the final minute of Game 2. Pacers 93, Magic 78: The challenge before the Indiana Pacers wasn't about game plans, execution or matchups. It was simply about toughness. An Orlando team without its top rebounder, injured all-star centre Dwight Howard, dominated the boards in the first half to take a two-point lead. The heavily favored Pacers stewed in their locker room as they faced the possibility of taking a two-game deficit to Orlando for Game 3 Wednesday. “No one liked the way we were playing,” Indiana forward Tyler Hansbrough said. “I didn't think we were playing with energy or aggressive enough.” The Pacers responded, asserting complete control inside during the second half of a 93-78 win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. Indiana grabbed 12 of the first 13 rebounds in the third quarter and outrebounded Orlando 26-13 in the second half. “That's what it's exactly about,” Indiana forward Danny Granger said. “This time of year, games are a lot harder. Everybody's playing twice as hard. You have to be the team with the most resolve, the team just playing with the most attitude to try to get the win. It was just something everybody knew.”
