Cold? Nets hot in Miami

MIAMI — Brooklyn took out two years of frustration on Miami, and did it in the span of about two quarters.

Joe Harris scored a career-high 21 points, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added 18 and Brooklyn simply embarrassed Miami 111-87 on Friday night, matching the biggest win any Nets team ever enjoyed over the Heat.

The final score hardly showed how bad it was for Miami. The Heat led 18-8 early, then were outscored 85-37 over the next 28 minutes. Brooklyn led by 20 at the half, then pushed the margin to 38 late in the third and beat Miami for the first time since Dec. 28, 2015.

“Great job by the guys being ready,” Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Even at halftime you knew the Heat were going to come out with a lot of energy and we responded again. We didn’t have a bad quarter defensively.”

Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen each had 12 points for the Nets. LeVert added a career-best 11 assists.

Josh Richardson scored 19 points and Hassan Whiteside added 17 for Miami. The Heat shot 3 for 26 from 3-point range, and 34 percent from the field overall — the team’s second-worst rate at home in the last 10 years.

The Heat started on an 8-0 run. That ended their list of achievements for the evening. Brooklyn scored 13 unanswered points, grabbed the lead by the end of the first quarter and never relented.

“We weren’t perfect but we were more perfect than the other night,” Atkinson said, referring to Brooklyn’s Wednesday loss at New Orleans. “The challenge for us is to do it more consistently. That’s what we’re searching for.”

It was the fifth time this season the Heat trailed by as many as 30 in a game — none of the previous margins as big as the 38-pointer the Nets enjoyed in this one. —AP