Not to be D-nied
Nets deliver defensively in rout of Heat
MIAMI — After weeks of playing the worst defense in the NBA, bottoming out Wednesday in New Orleans, the Nets’ film sessions were salty and their mood was miserable. They finally looked in the mirror and challenged themselves.
And the Nets rose to the challenge with their best defensive effort in years and one of the biggest road routs in team history. They hammered the Heat 111-87 on Friday before a sellout crowd of 19,600 at American Airlines Arena.
“As upset as I was with our defensive performance against the Pelicans, we just turned the tables. It was a complete turnaround,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Great job by the guys being ready. Even at halftime, you know the Heat are going to come out with a lot of energy, and we responded again.”
Oh, they responded better than they had all season.
The Nets (13-22) had dropped three straight and seven of their last eight, allowing a leagueworst 49.9 percent shooting over that stretch. And after coughing up 128 points Wednesday, Atkinson was angry and they were embarrassed.
Friday in Miami they something about it.
“Yeah, it was not good,” Joe Harris said of Wednesday’s clunker. “Nobody played the way we know we’re capable of, and to be honest a little embarrassed. To come in here and compete for an actual full four quarters, that’s what we’d talked about doing, and it started off on the defensive end.”
The Nets routed the Heat, matching their most lopsided win in their 117 regular season meetings, and the biggest in 58 trips to Miami. And it was the Nets’ beleaguered team defense that shockingly led the way.
“After those losses, you’re miserable. The players are misera- ble, the coaches are miserable, the film sessions are miserable and downright nasty,” Atkinson said. “The young guys respond to that. They don’t like that feeling. There’s a heightened aware- ness, like, ‘There’s a lot of people around here who aren’t happy, so we’ve got to pick it up.’ I think that was part of it.”
Thus inspired and properly incentivized, the Nets harassed the Heat into 33.7 percent shooting. It was the lowest they had allowed since Detroit shot the same on Nov. 29, 2015, and their best defensive effort on the road since holding Denver to 33 percent on Feb. 23, 2015.
Harris led the way with a career-high 21 points, while Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added 18 points and eight rebounds and Caris LeVert had a 12 points and a career-high 11 assists. But it was the defense that held Miami to 3-of-26 from deep, and salvaged what was looking like a winless five-game road swing.
“Yeah, we’ve got to quit waiting for us getting smacked around to wake us up,” said Harris, who joined LeVert on a bench unit that turned the tide.
After Brooklyn had spotted the Heat an 18-8 lead with 5:27 left in the first quarter, the Nets reeled off 12 unanswered points. The bench sparked a 27-5 run to go ahead 35-23 with 9:52 remaining in the half.
With LeVert running the show with aplomb and Harris drilling 3-pointers, the Nets outscored Miami 35-19 in the second quarter, and 51-21 after spotting them that ten-point lead.
The Nets took a 59-39 lead into the locker room, and stormed out of the gate on a 9-2 spurt and went ahead by 27 on DeMarre Carroll’s foul shots.
The lead swelled to 38 with 1:11 left in the third after Quincy Acy ripped the ball away from Bam Adebayo, the Heat got whistled for a technical and Harris’ ensuing free throw made it 93-58. The rest was a laugher.
“It was just intensity. We came out with great effort, blowing up handoffs, denying handoffs, things like that, contesting every shot, boxing out,” LeVert said. “That discouraged them because we kept doing it. We were consistent the whole game.”