It wasn’t pretty. As a matter of fact, it got downright ugly by the end.
But the Nets need to learn to win ugly. And they did just that in building a big lead and holding on to beat what’s left of decimated Miami, 128-124, at Barclays Center.
Brooklyn snapped a two-game skid and notched the first victory for their Big 3, with that trio coming up big when they had to. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden scored every single one of the Nets’ 32 points in the fourth quarter, as they watched what had been an 18-point cushion shrivel to one.
“It was one of those games where we could’ve found a bunch of ways to lose it,” coach Steve Nash said. “So I was happy with the character and resolve we showed.”
After their defense had cratered out in losing consecutive games in Cleveland, they did allow Bam Adabayo to torch them for a career-high 41 points. But the Nets held shorthanded Miami to 13-of-46 from deep and got just enough stops to win.
And just enough clutch play from their Big 3.
Durant had a team-high 31 points, Irving added 28 and Harden had 12 with 11 assists and seven boards. Irving had 18 in the fourth quarter, including 15 in the final 6:18 and 10 in the last 2:41.
“It’s winning time. I’ve always said that throughout my career. When it gets down to that point, you just want to buckle down on the defensive end, get stops, and I felt like we did that,” Irving said. “It was just effort, things we can control.”
Joe Harris added 23 on a career-high seven 3-pointers to help bust Miami’s 2-3 and 3-2 zones. But some much-improved defense helped save the day, albeit against a shell of a team without Jimmy Butler, Avery Bradley and Tyler Herro.
“I thought we played with a sense of urgency,” Durant said. “We made sure our technique was right and our schemes.”
The Nets took an 11-2 lead out of the gate on what was left of the Heat.
Coming off his two lowest-scoring two games of the season — six points and eight points — Harris drilled a pair of 3s in the first minute. Harris’ fourth spotted the Nets to a 23-12 lead they held on to. Barely.
After struggling at times with Cleveland’s zone, the Nets a 2-2-1 press, 2-3 zone, 3-2 zone, everything the Heat could throw at them. They still padded their cushion to 60-42 on Bruce Brown’s free throw with 2:28 in the first half.
Brooklyn still led 96-80 on a Durant 3 with 9.6 seconds left in the third quarter but coughed up 15 unanswered points in a run that spanned the periods. They saw the lead shrivel to just one on a layup by Duncan Robinson (18 points) with 9:27 to play.
But the Nets never let Miami over the hump, responding with eight straight of their own in a one-minute blitz.
“Ky carried us there in the fourth,” Harris said.
Miami kept coming, and Irving kept having to answer. At 106-104, Irving hit a 3 for breathing room. Then Nunn’s 3 cut the lead to 111-110 with just 3:18 remaining, but Irving responded with a baseline jumper.
At 113-112, he hit a 3 to give them a four point edge. Durant’s 15-footer extended it to six, and Irving’s layup to make it 120-112 with 51 seconds iced it.
“He works on all of those shots every day, and he comes in with that mentality, especially late in the games, that he can knock those down for us,” Durant said. “He’s an all-world player, he’s a great teammate.
“When the ball’s in his hands late in the game our team is so unpredictable because he can make a pass, he can score in midrange, score from the 3-point area, get to the basket, and we’ve got weapons around him. It makes us tough to guard. We’re going to need that from him going forward, and he was phenomenal in the fourth.”