The losing streak is finally over.
The Nets avoided what would have been an eight-game skid with a 117-113 victory over the Miami Heat on Friday. This was as impressive of a victory as the Nets could have asked for. They beat a Heat team with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.
“I thought that it was maybe one of the highest intensity games we’ve played all year,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said post-game. “I think our backs were to the wall a little bit against an excellent team — real credit to the guys.”
“It’s a big win for sure, but in terms of getting the monkey off our backs — it feels really, really good,” Spencer Dinwiddie added.
That monkey was a Nets’ free fall dating back to a Dec. 26 loss to the Knicks. The losses began to pile and Nets spiraled, falling to a 16-20 record before their win over the Heat.
“We needed one,” Jarrett Allen told the Daily News. “Just to get back on track, back on the rails, especially against Miami, a top-five team. We finally got a win against a top team, showing we can play with anybody.”
Early on, it looked like the Nets were on their way to loss No. 8. The Heat pounced on the Nets with a 42-point first quarter on 65% shooting from the field. As they scored point No. 42, “Let’s go, Heat!” chants echoed throughout Barclays Center. Miami took a 12-point lead into halftime.
The Nets had no answer for Jimmy Butler, who picked their analytics-based defense apart for 33 points, all in the mid-range, at the rim or at the foul line. It was Butler whose fourth-quarter heroics won the Heat their last game on Dec. 1, when he marched to foul line and hit five free throws in the game’s final 67 seconds.
There were no heroics from Butler on Friday night. Instead, it was a group effort from the Nets down the stretch that got them over the hump.
After trailing 12 at the half, the Nets clawed back into the game with their defense. After the Heat scored 42 points in the opening period, the Nets held them to 44 in the second half and outscored Miami, 32-20, in the third quarter.
That period was money for Dinwiddie, who scored 10 of his team-high 26 points in the third. He also recorded three of his career-high 14 assists in the fourth quarter.
“You talk about the fourth quarter, I thought he was great,” Atkinson said post-game. “He went through a stretch where he was struggling a little bit and kind of got back on track tonight. He was outstanding throughout the game and was a fourth-quarter difference maker.”
Two other difference makers in the fourth quarter were Caris LeVert and Joe Harris. LeVert hit two threes in the game’s final four minutes, including a step-back three that gave the Nets a 112-111 lead at the 1:09 mark in the fourth quarter. It was their first lead since the first quarter.
Harris also came up with a huge offensive rebound after a missed Taurean Prince corner three with 39 seconds to go in the fourth. Harris, who shot just 1-of-5 from three-point range and scored only nine points, secured three rebounds in the final 90 seconds and two offensive boards in the last four minutes of the game.
“They just wanted it more,” said Heat guard Goran Dragic of the Nets’ run in the fourth quarter. “We didn’t get the 50-50 balls, offensive rebounds, and from there on they were just making shots.”
It was an all-around win for a Nets team desperate for a victory.
Rodions Kurus got the start for the injured Garrett Temple and scored 19 points on four-of-five shooting from three. Kurucs’ off-season work and time spent in the G-League this season is starting to pay off. Friday night was his best shooting night of the season — possibly of his young career.
This is what this team is capable of when their stars are healthy. The scariest part: Brooklyn’s two biggest, brightest and newest stars continue to miss games with injury.
Kyrie Irving continues to miss games with a right shoulder impingement, though he is eyeing a return next week. Kevin Durant signed with the Nets as a free agent with the understanding that he may miss the entire season recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon.
The Nets lost David Nwaba, their defensive spark plug, for the season to the same Achilles injury, and they lost Caris LeVert for 24 consecutive games after he underwent thumb surgery in mid-November.
Brooklyn has had to play short-handed since mid-November, and now they’re getting healthy at the right time. Next up is the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, and Trae Young has had a field day with every defense he’s faced
source nydailynews.com
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