Following one of their most stunning losses in recent years, the Miami Heat have little time to regroup before facing the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Monday.
Miami has lost three straight heading into the matchup against Brooklyn, which has lost seven of its last nine.
Miami’s latest loss came on Saturday against the Orlando Magic, who trailed by 22 points at the start of the fourth quarter before rallying for a 121-114 win.
The Heat were held to three points over the first 9:17 of the fourth quarter and were outscored 37-8 in the final period.
“You have to credit them,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “They stepped up their defense, they got stops. That’s what they do. We started to try to self-will a little bit versus that pressure, that led to turnovers. And then when we did get open looks, we weren’t in a rhythm and you’re feeling a little bit of the momentum shift. It’s tough to knock those down.”
Bam Adebayo and Terry Rozier scored 23 points apiece for Miami, which missed 14 of its final 15 3-point attempts in the loss.
“These are tough ass lessons to complete a game,” Spoelstra said. “This is the modern NBA right now. A 20-point lead is not what it was a decade ago and you have to finish all the way through.”
Miami played without star Jimmy Butler (stomach illness), who is listed as questionable for Monday’s contest.
Brooklyn is also looking to bounce back from a tough loss after falling 105-94 to the Utah Jazz on Saturday. Utah entered the game with one of the league’s worst records at 6-20.
Cam Johnson scored 18 points and Ben Simmons had 15 points and 10 assists for the Nets, who committed 19 turnovers and shot 17.5 percent (7 of 40) from 3-point range.
“It’s about controlling the controllables. You can control how you take care of the ball. Obviously turnovers are part of the game, but we gotta be better,” Brooklyn coach Jordi Fernandez said. “And when you get punched, can we come together and respond? Up and down, I don’t think we did all the way through. I’m expecting our guys to be better.”
Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith missed the game with a left calf contusion and is listed as questionable to face the Heat. Noah Clowney started in place of Finney-Smith and contributed 10 points and six rebounds.
Injuries to players such as Cam Thomas (hamstring), Ziaire Williams (knee), Trendon Watford (hamstring), recently acquired De’Anthony Melton (knee) and Bojan Bogdanovic (foot) have forced Fernandez to use 15 different starting lineups through 28 games.
The injuries have created an opportunity for second-year forward Jalen Wilson, who is averaging nine points and 3.5 rebounds. Wilson is averaging 25.4 minutes per game and shooting 40.1 percent from the field.
“It’s been a blessing, man. I’m so thankful to have this season and have the coaching staff that we have,” Wilson said. “Any young guy just wants an opportunity to play, and we all have it now, and it’s just been fun to play, fun to match with all the guys, and get to compete every night.”
–Field Level Media