The Brooklyn Nets won this Saturday overwhelmingly (95-110) in Miami about Heat disoriented who, with their fourth straight loss, lost the lead in the East to the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Miami Heat (47-28) they handed over the first position in the East and they did it against some Nets that continue to grow and assert themselves as a great threat for the other teams in their Conference, in the event that they manage to overcome the play-in and get into the playoffs.
The Brooklyn Nets (38-28) had lost their last four games against Miami, but for this Saturday they had the return of two figures after recovering from injuries, the Slovenian Goran Dragic and a brilliant Seth Curry.
The game’s top scorer was Kevin Durant with 23 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and a block. Andre Drummond got the double double of 13 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals. Seth Curry scored 17 points, Kyrie Irving 11 and Nic Claxton 10.
For the Heat, the highlight was Bam Adebayo with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal and 2 blocks. Tyler Herro and Max Struss had 13 points while Kyle Lowry had 12.
Four minutes into the first half Jimmy Butler made the difference with four assists to help PJ Tucker and Lowry score 5 points each (15-7).
With four minutes to go in the first quarter, there was a spectacular exchange of explosive plays and spectacular dunks starring Claxton and Adebayo (23-19).
But that was little more than an anecdote on a very negative night for Miamiwithout his coach Erik Spoelstra on the bench, for personal reasons.
Durant pulls the Nets
With just over a minute to go in the first segment, one of the three Australians on the Nets, Patty Mills, triple, put the New Yorkers ahead on the scoreboard after being behind almost the entire set (25-26), which ended 25-27 after a free throw by Kevin Durant.
The Australian Kyrie Irving, with a triple, and the Slovenian Dragic, with two, defended the advantage of the visitors (36-45), but a Herro, who scored 9 points in a few minutes, was trying to avoid disaster that seemed to be coming with a more integrated Nets (38-45).
Durant got a defensive rebound, the ball went out of bounds and after being assisted by Irving the Texan forward of the Brooklyn team achieved the maximum advantage of the game so far (40-53).
Some almost impenetrable Nets, against some Heat lost in defense, they finished the first half of the game 21 points higher (46-65).
Durant, from free throws, reached 21 personal points two minutes into the third quarter (48-72). Center Andre Drummond hung from the basket to defend the lead a minute later (51-74).
The Heat sink
Seth Curry, with his third triple of the night, continued to humiliate a totally disoriented Heat (53-80) and Drummond once again imposed his strength crushing the hoop to make clear the superiority of the visitors (55-82).
Claxton, from “alley oop”, and Curry, with his fourth triple, they delved into a wound that those of Miami, losing ball after ball (21 decisive losses in the whole match), they did not know how to close (57-91).
The Heat, resorting to the bench and with good performances from Caleb Martin, Dewayne Dedmon, Víctor Oladipo and Max Strus keeping the type, they seemed to have given up the match when the third quarter concluded with 68-96.
The last quarter began with the Heat bench showing its face, but the Nets also have good backups and Blake Griffin shut them up with three triples in a minute and a half (74-105).
With the starters of both teams resting almost the entire last set, it was clear that the match was decided in favor of the visitors.
The Nets enjoyed the game as a preview of a possible playoff matchup with the conference leaders and that ended with 92-110.