MIAMI – The shorthanded Nets went into Miami missing three starters.
They found a huge gut-check win over the Eastern Conference champs.
Brooklyn knew they had to be ready for a punch in the face, and got up off the mat — and rallied from a huge deficit — to earn a 109-105 knockout of the Heat at Kaseya Center.
Trailing by as much as 16, the Nets used a 19-4 fourth-quarter run — including 11 unanswered — to grind out a result.
It was all the more impressive considering they played without starters Nic Claxton, Cam Johnson and Spencer Dinwiddie.
“They’re a great team. They’ve been together for awhile. Their intensity they play with so we are going to have to come out here and play for 48 minutes with high level intensity and try to give ourselves a chance to win,” Dorian Finney-Smith had said beforehand. “We’re down a couple of guys. We are going to need players to step up.
“We’ve just got to space the floor and follow the scouting report. I can’t give ya’ll everything. But we just have to be the better team. They have a great team; they’ve been together for awhile, they have great veterans. So we just have to try to execute the gameplan better than them. We know they’re going to come out and punch us in the face and we just have to be ready to hit them back.”
Mikal Bridges had nine of his team-high 21 points in the pivotal fourth quarter, while Lonnie Walker IV and Armoni Brooks — the latter two-way just called up due to their depleted state — finished with 17 each off the bench.
Brooklyn outscored Miami 34-22 in the fourth, shooting 6-of-10 from 3-point range and holding the Heat to 3-of-11.
“They’re playing fast, that goes without saying. You can see it just from their numbers,” said Miami’s Erik Spoelstra. “Without Claxton they’re playing smaller, a little bit more positionless, you don’t necessarily know who the center is. You could probably say Simmons is the point and their center. That’s allowed a lot of space and Cam Thomas has really taken advantage of that space.
“More than anything we have to make this team feel us. We have to get after them and in our building we have to make them uncomfortable. It’s going to great efforts to do that. We’re fully capable of it. We did not do it on the road. It’s time to start changing that kind of disposition.”
Brooklyn felt Miami.
But it made the Heat feel them more down the stretch.
The Nets overcame a 6:16 first-half stretch without a basket that put them in a hole, falling behind by double digits.
Brooklyn saw its deficit grow to 56-40 on a Tyler Herro 3-pointer with :31.3 left in the half.
It was still 77-63 with 3:53 left in the third, when the Nets reeled off eight unanswered to get back in the game.
Thomas capped the run with a floating bank shot that pulled Brooklyn within 77-71; but the always-stoic guard got whistled for a surprising technical by official Nick Buchert.
It slowed the momentum, but didn’t stop it.
Trailing 86-78 after Haywood Highsmith’s 3, the Nets ripped off 11 unanswered.
Brooklyn forced a couple of turnovers, and Ben Simmons’ block of Tyler Herro at the rim turned into Trendon Watford’s go-ahead left-corner 3-pointer.
Watford’s bucket gave Brooklyn an 89-86 lead with 8:38 to play.
After Bam Adebayo put Miami back ahead, Simmons found Royce O’Neale for a 3-pointer of his own, and a 92-90 lead. The Nets stretched it to 97-90.
Even after Brooklyn saw Miami respond with a 7-1 run to close within a point, Bridges killed off the Heat momentum with a huge play.
The spindly forward snaked inside for an offensive rebound, putback and an and-one.
Brooklyn (2-2) closed the game out from there.