When: March 28, 2016; 7:30 PM EST
Where: American Airlines Arena; Miami, FL
TV: YES Network
Radio: WFAN 660 AM
- Riding high off back-to-back home wins against the Cavaliers and Pacers, the Brooklyn Nets start a four-game road trip tonight down in Miami against the Heat, who have won three of four and are currently the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference.
- This is the first time the Nets will face Joe Johnson since waiving the seven-time All-Star on February 25th in the beginning of Sean Marks’ tenure with the team. In his 14 games with Miami, Johnson has been stellar offensively, slashing .536/.522/.818 with 13.6 points per contest. This performance has built off his post-2015 resurgence with Brooklyn.
- Miami is still without Chris Bosh (calf blood clots), who hasn’t played since February 9th, and also won’t have Goran Dragic (illness) tonight. Rookie Josh Richardson will start in Dragic’s place.
- This is the fourth and final meeting between these two teams this season. The Heat won the first and third matchups — both in Brooklyn — by a combined 10 points while the Nets won down in Miami on December 28th thanks to 26-point performances from both Brook Lopez and Wayne Ellington. Ellington was 7-for-9 from three-point range in that games as the Nets stunned the home crowd with a comeback from a double-digit halftime deficit.
- The biggest surprise with the Nets as of late as been how effective their offensive attack has been, especially in the last seven games. Over that span, Brooklyn is just 3-4 but has scored at least 100 points in each contest as Tony Brown has shook up his rotation and increased his team’s pace. Obviously, the performances of guys like Sean Kilpatrick and Brook Lopez/Thaddeus Young (and the return of Rondae Hollis-Jefferson) has helped but it has been a team-wide effort to spur ball movement and get out on the fastbreak more.
Probable lineups
BKN- Shane Larkin (PG), Sergey Karasev (SG), Bojan Bogdanovic (SF), Thaddeus Young (PF), Brook Lopez (C)
MIA- Josh Richardson (PG), Dwyane Wade (SG), Joe Johnson (SF), Luol Deng (PF), Amar’e Stoudemire (C)
Final thoughts
With 10 games left in a lost season, the Nets are just playing out the proverbial string. But, this game is an incredibly important one for the Heat’s playoff seeding, so Brooklyn can act as a spoiler if it can maintain the high level of play from the Cleveland and Indiana wins. Without Bosh and Dragic (as well as the injured Tyler Johnson), the Heat are beatable, especially if Brook Lopez can outplay Hassan Whiteside down low.
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