Takeaways and details from Heat’s fifth straight win despite Nets’ fourth-quarter push
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 115-111 win over the Brooklyn Nets (29-27) on Saturday night at FTX Arena. The Heat remains in first place in the Eastern Conference, with its next game coming Tuesday at home against the Dallas Mavericks:
The Heat (37-20) won its fifth straight game. In all five games, Miami has dominated the third quarter.
Entering halftime, the Heat led the Nets 64-58. But Miami won the third quarter 27-18 to enter the fourth ahead by 15.
The Heat has now outscored teams by a combined margin of 71 points in the third quarter during its five-game winning streak.
This third-quarter success is somewhat new for Miami, which had outscored teams by 0.9 points per third quarter this season before this five-game stretch. The Heat has won the period by 14.2 points per game during this streak.
In Saturday’s third quarter, the Heat made a lot of shots and the Nets didn’t.
Miami shot 11 of 21 (52.4 percent) from the field in the period, while Brooklyn shot 7 of 22 (31.8 percent).
The Heat’s starting five of Kyle Lowry, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, P.J. Tucker and Bam Adebayo were responsible for most of the third-quarter damage. That lineup outscored Brooklyn 20-8 before Miami made its first substitution with 5:27 remaining in the period.
Adebayo scored eight points and grabbed four rebounds in the third quarter. He finished the game with 19 points, 14 rebounds and four assists.
Robinson made both of his three-point attempts to score six points in the period.
One of Robinson’s threes came with the help of Tucker’s trademark hustle, as he dove to the floor to slap a loose ball to Robinson for an open shot with 8:52 left in the quarter.
“I don’t care if I ever score,” Tucker said. “I love getting my guys a look. ... I’m all about it, making winning plays, sacrificing your body, putting it on the line to win games. That’s what it’s all about.”
Robinson scored 17 points with the help of 5-of-8 shooting from deep on Saturday.
Lowry dished out four assists in the period. He finished the win with 13 points on 4-of-10 shooting, three rebounds and six assists.
Butler ended the night with 13 points on 4-of-11 shooting, six rebounds and three assists.
During the five-game winning streak, the Heat has shot 51.4 percent from the field and 14 of 34 (41.2 percent) from three-point range in the third quarter.
The Nets didn’t go away quietly, mounting a big comeback in the fourth quarter. But the Heat managed to hold on.
Brooklyn opened the fourth quarter on a 14-4 run to cut Miami’s lead to five with 7:38 to play.
The Heat responded with a 9-2 run of its own to push its lead back up to 12 a few minutes later.
But the Nets kept coming, as they went on another run to eventually cut the Heat’s lead to one with 37.7 seconds left.
On a play drawn up during a timeout, Butler then drove to the basket for a much-needed layup to put Miami ahead by three with 22.3 seconds left.
Nets guard Kyrie Irving was then fouled and made both free throws to again trim the deficit to one point with 15.3 seconds to play.
On the next possession, Butler was fouled and made one of two free throws to bump the Heat’s lead to two with 14.6 seconds left.
The next play was the game-deciding sequence.
After a timeout, Brooklyn’s Cam Thomas tried to get the ball to Irving. But Lowry was all over it to break up the pass and force the turnover.
“I think that’s what it was going to take was some random deflection plays,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Nets coach Steve Nash said of Lowry’s deflection on the pass to Irving: “We didn’t free Kyrie. This is what we were trying to do. It’s unfortunate we didn’t get it to him.”
Tucker was then fouled and he made both free throws with 2.1 seconds left to put the Heat ahead by four and seal the victory.
While the win belonged to the Heat, the fourth quarter belonged to the Nets. Brooklyn ended up outscoring the Heat 35-24 in the fourth quarter.
Irving was nearly unstoppable in period, totaling 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line in the fourth. It’s the most points Irving has scored in a quarter as a member of the Nets.
“His dribble dances and creation, there’s just no telling where he’s going to go,” Spoelstra said of Irving. “That one possession where we trapped him like three times and then in a crowd he still found a way to get through everybody for the left-handed, really it was kind of a long left-handed scoop runner. It was just an amazing play.”
During the final four minutes of the game, the Heat shot 1 of 6 from the field and 0 of 2 on threes.
In total, the Heat shot just 7 of 21 (33.3 percent) from the field and 2 of 8 (25 percent) on threes while committing four turnovers in the fourth quarter. What helped save Miami was the eight points it scored at the free-throw line in the final period.
“I think we’re getting comfortable playing with leads,” Robinson said. “It’s something we have talked about, getting those leads with the energy and effort and to maintain that through the second half.”
The Heat continues to be a bit shaky late in games, but it added another win to its clutch record.
A clutch game is defined as one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Heat holds a relatively average net rating (outscoring teams by 0.2 points per 100 possessions) in clutch situations this season.
Still, Miami improved its clutch record to an impressive 16-10 on Saturday.
Games like Saturday are one reason for that discrepancy, when the opponent makes a fourth-quarter push to turn what was a comfortable Heat lead into a clutch situation. Those late-game runs have hurt Miami’s clutch numbers, but the Heat has found a way to win most of those games because the opponent often can’t complete the comeback.
“It didn’t go necessarily how we wanted it to in the fourth quarter, particularly when we have a 20-point lead,” Spoelstra said following Saturday’s win. “We allowed them some life with some of our inefficient offense. Probably some quick shots, poor shots and then they just were able to get some easy ones going the other way.”
Tyler Herro returned and looked healthy. But he was not on the court for much of the fourth quarter.
In his usual sixth man role, Herro returned from a two-game absence stemming from right knee soreness. He recorded 15 points on 4-of-11 shooting from the field and 7-of-7 shooting from the foul line, seven rebounds and one assist in Saturday’s win.
“He gives you that offensive punch,” Spoelstra said of Herro following his first game back. “He’ll get in better rhythm, particularly on the defensive end. But it was great to see him back out there and moving around where you didn’t notice any kind of lingering effect from his injury.”
Herro scored 12 of his 15 points in the first half. He’s averaging a team-high 9.6 fourth-quarter minutes per game this season, but he played just 2:56 in the fourth quarter against the Nets.
Instead, Gabe Vincent and Max Strus were the two bench players who were in the game down the stretch. Vincent finished with 11 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and Strus scored nine points on 3-of-7 shooting from three-point range.
But the Heat’s bench was still without Caleb Martin on Saturday. Martin sat out a second straight game with left Achilles soreness.
Along with missing Martin, the Heat was without Markieff Morris (return to competition reconditioning) and Victor Oladipo (right knee injury recovery) against the Nets.
Heat-Nets should be a very intriguing matchup later this season. But a lot of star power was missing on Saturday.
On Saturday, it was just another game between an elite Eastern Conference team and an undermanned Nets team looking for its first win in three weeks.
Just days after completing the biggest trade of the season, the Nets were missing some of their best players against the Heat.
Superstar Kevin Durant missed his 14th straight game with a left knee MCL sprain. The Nets have dropped 11 straight games and have posted a 2-12 record while Durant has been out.
Before Saturday’s game, Durant spoke to reporters and said of the trade that brought Ben Simmons to Brooklyn and sent James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers: “It gives the team a sense of security. They want to be here and be a part of the group going forward for the rest of the season. I’m sure there was a lot of uncertainty in the locker room about what our future was going to be as a group. So many different things happened as far as injuries, lineups and COVID. ... I think now everyone has settled in on what they need to do. As we get bodies back, we’ll figure out our roles and go from there.”
Brooklyn was also without its new players — Simmons, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond. Simmons is still not with the team, and Curry and Drummond were held out because the trade is still pending.
The Nets were also missing LaMarcus Aldridge (left ankle sprain), Nic Claxton (left hamstring tightness) and Joe Harris (left ankle surgery) against the Heat.
All of those injuries and issues left Irving as the lone star available for the Nets on Saturday. Irving finished with 29 points on 10-of-22 shooting, five rebounds and five assists.
The Nets are in eighth place in the East and stand 7.5 games behind the first-place Heat.
This story was originally published February 12, 2022 at 10:40 PM.
