LeBron James and Heat enter Super Bowl eve game against Knicks looking ...

JUSTIN LANE/EPA

Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks defeat the Heat earlier this season and take a four-game winning streak into Saturday night's game against them.

Maybe this is when LeBron James will be at his most dangerous: a nationally televised game at Madison Square Garden on the eve of the Super Bowl.

The A-list crowd will be in the building for Miami's final regular-season visit to New York this season. Plus, the Heat lost its last game at the Garden three weeks ago and is just days removed from being humbled and to a certain extent embarrassed by Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Of course, the Knicks could make a case that James and the Heat have never been so vulnerable. Mike Woodson's club has won four of its last five against the two-time defending champions and enters Saturday's game having won four straight. Moreover, the Knicks' small lineup, featuring Carmelo Anthony at power forward, could exploit Miami the same way Oklahoma City's small lineup picked the Heat apart. 'It's been an adjustment for us this year,' James told reporters on Friday in Miami, 'because we haven't quite figured out the small-ball lineup as effective as we had in the past.'

Miami has reached three straight NBA Finals by playing small, but its lack of perimeter quickness and inability to defend the three-point line have been exposed. The Thunder made 16 of 27 threes in its 112-95 victory on Wednesday.

'We felt like the league would go small once we started doing it,' James added. 'And certain teams that do it, it works well for them. Certain teams, it doesn't. But OKC and the Knicks are two teams that definitely thrive on playing small ball and they've got the personnel to do it.'

The Knicks won 54 games last season with Anthony used almost exclusively as a power forward. He also finished third in the MVP voting behind James and Durant. So, of course, the Knicks messed with a winning formula by trading for Andrea Bargnani and moving Anthony to small forward. The results were disastrous until an elbow injury sidelined Bargnani indefinitely and forced Woodson to go back to what worked best: Anthony at power forward and two point guards in the starting lineup.

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'I really like (it),' Anthony said. 'It seems to be working right now.'

It is a small sample size against weaker opponents - the Bobcats, Lakers, Celtics and Cavs - but the Knicks are scoring 125 points per 100 possessions in their last four games. Overall, they are averaging 105 points per 100 possessions, with Anthony mostly playing small forward.

Anthony has regained his form during the winning streak, averaging 37.5 points over 34.5 minutes while shooting 54%. He showed up for work nine days ago fed up with losing and decided to take matters into his own hands. The immediate result was a Garden-record 62-point performance against the Bobcats. And he hasn't slowed down since.

'Sometimes during the season you need something to just spark you,' Anthony said following Thursday's win over Cleveland. 'If that's the case then yeah, that 62-point game sparked us, got guys to refocus on the game.'

Heat forward Shane Battier said: 'When they've played really well against us, they've played small and they've made a ton of threes and Carmelo has run around and done what Carmelo has done.'

Anthony seems to lock in when he faces James, his good friend and Olympic teammate. Lately, Anthony has gotten help from a rejuvenated J.R. Smith and rookie Tim Hardaway Jr., who scored a career-high 29 points on Thursday. James isn't getting the same support from Battier, Ray Allen and especially Dwyane Wade, whose nagging knee issues could derail Miami's three-peat bid.

'The only way you can contain small ball is having your closeouts working right, have your defense working as a whole, to not only run them off the three-point line but protect the paint, as well,' Chris Bosh said. 'Your rotations have to be correct and it makes it difficult. It's the reason why we've had some success with it. It's hard to adjust to.'

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