It's hard to take much from recent history against the Heat apart from Wade's supernova brilliance, given that last year's Knick opening night victory at the Garden came with Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph still on the team, and the final loss to the Heat came in the last week of the season, when the Knicks were playing out the string. The Heat were a middling team offensively last season (20th in offensive efficiency, and particularly poor at getting to the FT line despite having Wade). They ranked surprisingly highly defensively (11th in defensive efficiency), owing mainly to their ability to create turnovers (Wade and Chalmers were 2nd and 3rd in the league in steals). However, unless Beasley has gotten a lot more physical and O'Neal has rediscovered the fountain of youth, the Heat don't have an imposing frontline and the Knicks should be able to get scoring opportunities inside.

My heart tells me the Knicks can and should win this with their depth if they can push the pace, but it's more likely that Wade should again make the difference in a close win at home. A win would be very nice though, as the schedule maker has given the Knicks a tough first couple of weeks of the season. If things play out on a worst case scenario (team struggles to score on the road, can't get it done against better teams like the Hornets, Sixers and Jazz at home), it could be a 2-5 or 1-6 start. But woops, let 's not start getting pessimistic. Let's go Knicks!