Brooklyn Nets fall to Miami Heat in an evening dedicated to flight, Lose 106-97

The Nets delivered Barclays Center immortality to Vince Carter tonight, but not a win.

Underneath a sea of celebratory banners, those gutsy red and navy New Jersey colors, and of course, a newly hung up No. 15 in the Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Nets did battle with the Miami Heat this evening.

While the pageantry that came with Vince Carter’s number retirement operated like a much-needed sedative pill, allowing us all to forget about Brooklyn’s lottery odds, phantom injuries, Cam Thomas’ pending free agency, and even their record, the game carried on nonetheless, as it always does.

Today’s involved Brooklyn trading blows with one of the East’s more curious teams. Looking at the Heat is like looking in a mirror and through the window of a two-year time machine’s chamber for the Nets. When Brooklyn agreed to trade Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving almost simultaneously, they also traded away the potential headaches that can come with control-demanding stars. With the Jimmy Butler saga still ongoing, I wouldn’t be shocked if Miami asked Brooklyn for some leftover aspirin on the way out tonight.

However, in their contest vs Brooklyn, Miami was able to tune out that noise and that which came from VC Day. Miami jumped up on Brooklyn 24-17 after the first frame as the Net offense struggled once more even with Russell’s return to action.

Brooklyn’s long-range missile system, which obliterated teams earlier in the season, looked more like a dusty old musket at first, as the Nets went 0-8 from three to open the game. Their first make from deep came with 1:09 left in the first and off the hands of Day’Ron Sharpe, who of course came into the game shooting 11.2% from deep on the season.

Sharpe and the Nets told the stats to kick rocks with a brief comeback effort in the second quarter as well. Despite the Heat allowing the third fewest opponent points off turnovers per game in the league over their last 10 games and six fewest for the season, the Nets chose to attack them there.

Brooklyn turned Miami over twice leading to six quick points to make it two point game early less than three minutes into the second. In the entire first half, Miami gave it up 10 times leading to 14 Net points, just 2.2 points off what they average for an entire game this season. They finished with 22 giveaways leading to 29 Brooklyn points in total.

But once more, Brooklyn’s offense operating at an efficiency level on par with an 80s refrigerator proved itself difficult to overcome. The Nets put up .375/.200 slashes in the first two periods. The Heat slowly but surely reinflated their lead to 11 with less than three to go.

It looked like another one certain to end before the clock indicated, but then Miami allowed D’Angelo Russell to get loose for a pair of threes, followed by one from Clowney with under a minute to go to make the second half worth sticking around for. It also provided some juice for the fans right before Carter’s big moment.

“He’s a problem for other teams,” said Fernández of Russell. “How good of a ball-handler he is, and he can score, but also he can play make. He’s very smart. He sees the game, sees the floor, so it’s an advantage for us…Right now, when we haven’t had a quote, unquote true point got out there, we still have found a way to fight and get into our stuff, but it’s easier when we have Ben and Dlo because that’s their job.”

With Dr. J in the house and some touching (and funny) words from Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson via the big board, Carter’s ceremony would be a difficult act to follow, but Brooklyn still did so better than expected. Russell went right back to the triple, splashing two more quick ones after the second half opened up.

DLo also put some gas in the transition tank, pushing with more assertiveness in the third to open things up for others along the wing. One beneficiary of that was Keon Johnson, who darted to the basket for a jam that tied things with 6:19 left in the third. Johnson finished the game with 22 points while shooting 7-19 from the field, tying Russell as Brooklyn’s leading scorer in the process.

It wasn’t long after that, however, that Tyler Herro began living up to his last name. The 25-year-old nailed two of his own triples to help Miami claw out an 82-68 lead before the fourth started. He put in nine points during the period helping Miami to close it on a 14-5 run. Herro would go on to finish the game with 25 points and eight dimes while shooting a crisp 8-14 from the field. Nikola Jović followed him off the bench with 17 points after shooting 5-7 on field goals.

“Obviously the worst quarter was the third quarter,” Fernández said. “That was where we lost the game.”

Jalen Wilson, who quietly flirted with a triple-double tonight after bringing in 12 points, eight assists, and nine rebounds, agreed.

“I think they started the third quarter just aggressive, getting out of transition,” the sophomore said. “Their hot guys had a couple of good shots, so you know, when you got guys scoring, get going, seeing the ball going early in the quarter, it just kind of got the entire team going.”

Even on a day honoring the greatest high flyer ever, Brooklyn couldn’t get back up after that. Both teams trode water in the final period, nearly tied 13-14 in scoring for it with four to go. Miami cleaning up its act regarding the turnovers by that point and elevating its shooting clips shut down Brooklyn’s two offensive engines. That left their halfcourt offense to fend for itself, which as we all know now, lacks the weapons to do so effectively.

Even if ineffectively, the Nets fought on down the stretch, leaving Fernández pleased for the most part.

“The resiliency and fight, that’s why I’m proud of the guys,” said the coach. “We’ll work at it, we’ll watch it, and we’ll be better. I love the fight, the togetherness. What we were about? It was not perfect, they’re things that we need to be better at, but really, I’m really, really proud of this group.”

Nonetheless, Brooklyn stacked their 32nd loss for the season and took another step toward a profitable lottery position. They move a few more yards closer to the Flagg, a few feet closer to the barracks currently housing two Scarlett Knights, or edged themselves closer toward Edgecombe.

Yeah, that last one needs work.

But even with that element of the Nets fandom disregarded, tonight didn’t feel like a loss with No. 15 in the building.

“It was very special,” Fernández said. “This is part of history, right? A player like him is only going to play once in a lifetime, but also we’ll never see somebody like him again…That means a lot for the organization, bringing all the alumni, former coaches, people that were involved in the past because at the end of the day, we all have to feel like this is a family, and you will always be part of this family. You know at some point you always say, ‘I want to retire here.’ That’s how I feel — but I will always want to come back and feel like this is home.”

Under the muck that comes with losing and rebuilding, it was indeed a special day. It was one to celebrate, not one to yell at each other about the team’s direction. It was like the Christmas Truce of 1914 for tank commanders and culture win guys — just in Brooklyn instead of the Western Front. Enjoy that, at least.

Final: Miami Heat 106, Brooklyn Nets 97

Injury Report

D’Angelo Russell, Ziaire Williams, and Ben Simmons were all made available per the Nets a handful of hours before the Nets game tipped off. The latter did not suit up, however. Simmons, who has missed three straight contests with an illness, got re-added to the injury report as out but with lower back soreness just before tipoff.

A league source tells NetsDaily not to fret entirely, however.

“He’s good,” the source said. “He was supposed to be back this game and jammed his hip in the warm up weirdly and couldn’t get it load. He’s been in the back all game getting treatment with the hope we can get him ready for the next game.”

Milestone Watch

• Jalen Wilson had a season-high eight rebounds and a career-high six assists tonight. He also had two steals this evening, tallying his sixth multi-steal game of the season
• D’Angelo Russell notched his third 20-point game of the season with the Nets in nine games. He had as many with the Lakers this year in 29 games.

Next Up

Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Brooklyn will next host the Sacramento Kings on Monday evening. They’re an opponent enjoying their own Jacque Vaughn ‘22 December run, having won 10 of their last 12 after firing former head coach Mike Brown.

The Kings and Nets have been tied together in the news for some time now as well. Sacramento has been eyed by many as possible landing spot for Cam Johnson should the Nets aim to move him before the trade deadline. However, Marc Stein reported this week there hasn’t been any chatter between the two teams for weeks now.