Three things to watch: Miami Heat renew rivalry with New York Knicks

We won’t get P.J. Brown picking up Charlie Ward and tossing him around. We’re not going to get Jeff Van Gundy clinging to Alonzo Mourning’s leg. We’re not going to get roundball rock intros.

Still, there will be echoes of the 1990s Sunday when the Knicks and Heat tip off Game 1 of their second-round series. We should see as grinding, defensive a series as there will be in the 2020s, a series where scores may regularly be below 100. This is old school, with Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau trying to slow down his former star Jimmy Butler, plus two franchises that genuinely hate each other. This is going to be fun.

Here are three things to watch that will decide this showdown between the Miami Heat and New York Knicks.

While he is officially “questionable” for Game 1, the Knicks are not going to tell us anything real about Randle’s status until they absolutely have to. And even then, don’t bet on the truth. What we know as of this writing are two things:

• Randle did not go through a full practice on Friday, he did some shooting, some lifting and some pool cardio. Thibodeau said of Randle, “We’re not going to put him in harm’s way.”

• The Knicks will not advance without a strong series from Randle… unless RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and others step up in his place.

Randle put up 43 in one regular season game against the Heat including hitting an insane game-winning 3.

Randle hits the WILD triple for the win!

43 points and 8 threes for Julius… 8 straight wins for the @nyknicks