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| Shaun Livingston garnered his first career point-rebound double-double tonight (19 points, 11 rebounds) in addition to blocking three shots and playing great defense on LeBron and co. |
This might be my latest game recap of Brooklyn Balling history (thank the LIRR) and it may be about one of the more exciting Nets wins I've covered on this site over the past few seasons. Winning their 5th-straight game of 2014–the streak is a season-high–the Brooklyn Nets took down the Miami Heat for the 2nd time this season at the Barclays Center in a shocking and down-to-the-wire double overtime contest on Friday.
Dwyane Wade, Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, and Deron Williams all missed the game due to injury so other players had to step up. Norris Cole did this for Miami, starting at point guard and scoring 18 points on 8-for-14 shooting. Shaun Livingston handled this for Brooklyn and coach Jason Kidd–whose tieless attire has accompanied his team's undefeated 2014 start–by compiling a double-double with points and rebounds, dishing out a bunch of assists, and locking down his personal defensive matchup, all in a career-high 51 minutes of playing time.
Brooklyn was winning this game from late in the 1st quarter until late in the 4th, when a Norris Cole three-pointers gave the Heat a 86-84 advantage, completing Erik Spoelstra's squad's 10-point comeback. Paul Pierce answered with a three of his own before LeBron and Joe Johnson exchanged buckets. Down by one at this point, LeBron got fouled and missed the front-end of a pair of free throws, tying the game at 89 and sending it to overtime after a missed buzzer-beating three from Paul Pierce.
The 1st overtime period was very low-scoring, as each team connected on just two shots apiece. One of the Heat's, a Norris Cole jumper, came with just three seconds left and when Miami was just down two. Shaking Livingston for a second, Cole hit yet another huge jumper, leading to another extra frame. However, with just 36 seconds left, LeBron James barreled over Livingston–while driving to the hoop–for his 6th and final foul, making him watch this game end from the Miami bench.
The drama all but ended in the 2nd overtime session, as it was all Nets, from the beginning till the end. Brooklyn scored the first 11 points of the period before a meaningless Ray Allen layup with the clock dwindling ended the shutout. The sudden offensive burst sealed the victory for the Nets, who are now 15-21 the #7 seed in the East.
Some observations I had from the game: Mirza Teletovic and LeBron nearly came to blows in the 4th quarter as a hard "MT3" foul on "King James" (stupid nickname jerseys) was ruled a flagrant and warranted a scary staredown from the League's MVP at the young Bosnian. The offensive foul was James' 4th of the game, putting him very close to a foul-out early in the final quarter…..LeBron scored about the quietest 36 points as is humanely possible. Okay, maybe he's not human…..All five Nets starters had a +/- rating of at least +10. Good sign? Good sign…..Kevin Garnett: 12 points, 5-for-8 shooting, 10 rebounds. Paul Pierce: 23 points, 7-for-17 shooting. I think these two guys are far from finished…..Joe Johnson scored 22 points in the 1st quarter (4-for-4 from three-point range) and scored 10 points the rest of the game for a total of 32. Not bad for someone who was in a brutal slump a week ago. That's three-straight 20+ point games for Joe…..Andray Blatche wasn't amazing today, and had a bad 1st half, but was great in the 3rd quarter, putting up eight quick points and grabbing eight rebounds on offense and defense.
Looking Ahead
Brooklyn has no rest, taking on the Raptors in Toronto later on Saturday night.
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