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| Paul Pierce scored 29 points on 12 field goal attempts (5-for-7 from three). Yeah, he's got some good basketball left in him. |
Raise your hand if you thought the Nets would win their 1st three meetings with the Miami Heat in the 2013-14 season? Anyone? Bueller? Ok, I didn't think so. Well, even though it may be highly unlikely, the Brooklyn boys are undefeated against the NBA's two-time defending champions, winning two games earlier this year at home and one tonight down in Miami.
The game was close throughout, with leads being exchanged back and forth the entire time. The Nets separated themselves by seven or so points at one point in the 2nd quarter, but saw their lead diminish to zero by halftime, as a Shaun Livingston jumper with 1:40 left in the frame was ruled a shot clock violation, wiping a pair of points off the board for Brooklyn. That ruling evened everything up at 42 after two quarters.
The 3rd quarter was more of the same, with the Nets holding the lead the majority of the time with Miami fighting back to retake it at isolated points. Brooklyn, though, was able to take a two-point advantange into the 4th quarter, when everything got really interesting.
To begin the final frame, Mirza Teletovic–after a Marcus Thornton layup and Chris Andersen dunk–hit one of his three 3-pointers on the night to give the Nets a 78-73 lead that would be nibbled on by the Heat for the remaining 11 minutes but was never overtaken. Mirza had one of his better games in awhile, as he scored 17 points on 6-for-11 shooting and hit a few momentous jumpers late in the contest.
Every time the Heat were able to string together a few scores in a row and threaten to close their deficit, the Nets managed to make an important shot–be it a Shaun Livingston dunk, Andray Blatche shimmy lay-in, or even a Mirza or Pierce three–to stem the tide and maintain their edge. However, with three minutes left in the game, Chris Bosh hit a longball (for three of his 24 points) to narrow the score to just 92-91. Then the Nets committed a few turnovers and were thankful to have Ray Allen miss a makeable three before Dwyane Wade split a pair of free throws tie up the game.
92-92 with two minutes, and who do you think the Nets give the ball to? Against Miami, a team he's killed for his whole career, it had to be Pierce, who cut right through surprisingly inconsistent Heat defense for a big score to put Brooklyn up two. Bosh then missed a three and Livingston was called for a questionable charge, giving Erik Spoelstra's team another chance to even it up, which it blew after Wade missed an ill-advised turnaround jumper.
55 seconds left, and Deron Williams–who was just 2-of-8 shooting for six points–drilled a jumper of his own, giving the Nets a four-point cushion with only 36 ticks left. As is normally the case with this team, that lead didn't look like enough as Bosh immediately responded with an old-fashioned three-point play. Coupled with a subsequent miss on another Deron jumper–a shot that rolled off the rim by maybe one or two inches–Miami had the ball, down one, with less than four seconds left.
The Heat, with the ball in the frontcourt, lost about two seconds after that as the Nets–with 11 steals on the night and countless deflections due to active hands on defense–knocked the ball out of bounds on a lazy Miami pass. With 1.4 seconds left, and the game on the line, Bosh then saw his inbounds pass stolen by the 6'7" Livingston as time expired. The perfect way to close out an incredible performance by a Nets team that has been playing out of its mind since the new year began, with the East's best record. It doesn't get much better than 3-0 against the league's best squad.
Some other observations I had from the game: Even without Kevin Garnett (back), Andrei Kirilenko (ankle), or even Brook Lopez (foot, you already knew that), the Nets played some incredible defense tonight. They forced 17 Heat turnovers, scoring 22 points off them, blocked seven shots, and deflected a seemingly endless amount of passes. The main catalyst for that defensive surge was Livingston, whose huge frame causes tons of problems for all opposing offenses. He manages to get his hands on so many passes that it greatly disrupts the flow of the offense trying to be run. Also, Mirza had three blocks, a few of which were on LeBron!….Speaking of LeBron, he didn't play that well, but still managed to score 22 points. That's pretty incredible….Mirza played 16 minutes off the bench and scored 17, took just 11 shots, had those three blocks, grabbed four boards, and didn't commit a turnover. One of his best performances of the year….To reiterate, Pierce scored a game-high 29 points on 9-for-12 shooting with some enormous 3rd and 4th quarter threes. There is a lot left in that tank….Deron, Joe Johnson, and Marcus Thornton combined for 19 points on 6-for-27 shooting (3-14 from three). That's awful. Just brutal. Can't happen much more…..Blatche added 11 points off the bench and hit some big buckets in the 2nd quarter when the Nets were struggling to hold their lead. He seems to know his role much better now, as he doesn't take as many jumpers and just parks himself in the lane for good offensive positioning……This team is going places. I'm insanely excited for what it can do now that it's playing up to its potential.
Looking Ahead
The Nets look to continue their great stretch of play on Friday night, when they play the Washington Wizards in our Nation's Capital.
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