Short-handed Miami Heat rallies but loses to Brooklyn Nets despite 41-point night from Bam

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If you were looking to gauge how the Heat measures up with the star-studded Brooklyn Nets, Saturday wasn’t the night to do it, with Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Avery Bradley all sidelined.

But what the Heat as a group - and Bam Adebayo on the offensive end - delivered in their absence was as stunning as it was impressive.

Down 96-80 late in the third, Miami unleashed a 15-0 run to close to within one early in the fourth. But the Nets then scored eight in a row, held off the Heat when Miami twice more closed to within one point, and hung on to dispatch the visiting Heat, 128-124, despite a career-high 41 points from Adebayo.

Adebayo easily surpassed his previous regular-season career high of 30 points, finishing 14 for 20 from the field and 12 for 14 from the line to go with nine assists and five rebounds in 38 minutes.

“I knew I had to be more aggressive than I was last game,” Adebayo said. “Honestly, I didn’t know I had 40 until the end of the game.”

It was the Heat’s first 40-point game in the regular season since Dwyane Wade scored 40 in a game against Detroit in March of 2015. Jimmy Butler scored 40 in a Finals game against the Lakers last year.

Miami had a chance to tie the game after a Kyrie Irving missed free throw, but instead of calling timeout down by three (which Erik Spoelstra wanted), the Heat instead pushed the ball upcourt and Adebayo was fouled with 3.3 seconds left. Adebayo missed the first free throw and made the second, leaving the Heat down, 126-124.

James Harden then hit two free throws to seal it.

Spoelsta said he had conveyed to the officials before Irving’s free throw that Miami wanted a time out in that situation and was mystified why that didn’t happen, even more so because he walked on the court with his clipboard after the Irving miss.

This was only the second game that Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, Irving and Harden played together as a troika, and it was their first win as a trio, after losing in Cleveland on Wednesday.

And those three repeatedly staved off Heat rallies. After the 15-0 Miami run, Irving hit a three, Harden followed with a three-point play and Durant hit a jumper.

Later on, Irving hit a jumper and a three-pointer after Miami twice closed to within one in the final three minutes.

Durant scored 31 and Irving came up big late to close with 28. Harden scored only 12, shooting 2 for 8, but chipped in 11 assists.

And Joe Harris tormented the Heat early, scoring 20 points in the first half on 6 for 9 three-point shooting en route to a 23-point night.

Goran Dragic shook off a poor shooting start to close with 19 and Kendrick Nunn and Duncan Robinson each scored 18.

“Developing that grit is something we talked about this whole year, understand teams are going to go on runs and we’ll go on runs as well,” Robinson said of the Heat’s valiant effort. “We didn’t do enough to get over that hump.”

The teams meet again on Monday in Brooklyn, and Miami is again expected to be without Butler, Bradley, Herro and Meyers Leonard - none of whom are on this road trip. The Heat also might be without Maurice Harkless, who left for good in the second quarter after sustaining a thigh contusion.

Five takeaways from Saturday’s game:

Taking into account the absence of Butler and Bradley, the Heat did a good job defending Brooklyn’s Big Three in the first half, before Durant and Irving came alive in the second half.

Miami opened with Adebayo on Durant, Harkless on Harden and Dragic on Irving. None of those Heat defenders was overwhelmed early on, and the Heat used its zone defense effectively during stretches.

Durant went to halftime with 11, Irving 8 and Harden 5.

But Durant took control after halftime, scoring 13 in the third, mostly on jump shots.

All the while, Harden seemed content working mostly as a facilitator.

The former Houston Rockets star didn’t even attempt a shot until the final second of the first quarter, when Precious Achiuwa fouled him on a three-pointer. All five of Harden’s first-half points came from the foul line, on fouls on three-pointers.

But Harden seemed content setting up others, delivering seven first-half assists.

With Harkless leaving with the injury, KZ Okpala started the second half defending Harden and offered some measure of resistance. Harden missed two long jumpers early in the third quarter.

Harden, a three-time scoring champion, finished 0 for 5 on threes.

And Harden’s 12-point output was well below his 25.3 scoring average this season. Harden entered averaging 26.5 points in his first four games with Brooklyn.

▪ Adebayo was at his aggressive best offensively.

Playing against a team that gives up a higher percentage of paint points than any team in the league, Adebayo looked for his own shot more than any time in memory.

He scored in a variety of ways, on jumpers (including a beautiful turnaround over DeAndre Jordan), dunks (primarily off Dragic feeds), nifty post moves and drives (including at least one past Durant).

He was 10 of 15 on shots that were not attempted around the rim.

“Obviously, Bam was fantastic,” Spoelstra said. “Down the stretch he was able to generate a lot of good offense.”

He even hit a three-point shot before the halftime buzzer to cap a 21-point first half, his career high scoring output in any half.

It was Adebayo’s first made three in two attempts this season and his sixth in 38 career attempts.

Adebayo’s previous career scoring high was 32 in an Eastern Conference Finals game against Boston.

▪ Kendrick Nunn continued his best stretch in a year.

Nunn, who entered averaging 22.7 points in his previous three games, delivered 18 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Nunn had four three-pointers in nine attempts and has improved his overall numbers from last season, when he finished second in Rookie of the Year balloting behind Ja Morant. He closed 7 of 14 from the field.

During this four-game stretch, Nunn is averaging 21.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.8 steals while shooting 56.1 percent from the field and 44.4 percent on threes.

▪ The Heat (for one night) fixed one season-long problem but continued to be plagued by another.

Miami, which leads the league in turnovers, committed a season-low eight - one reason why the Heat remained competitive despite shooting so poorly on threes (28 percent/13 for 46) and despite playing short-handed.

But two of the turnovers were late and costly, including a poor Andre Iguodala pass with Miami down 111-110 and just over two minutes left.

But the Heat - the league’s worst rebounding team - was again crushed on the boards, 47-30.

With its two best wing rebounders sidelined (Butler and Herro), Miami simply isn’t getting enough rebounds from its wing players.

▪ The Heat used its 11th different starting lineup in 15 games but continued to lose players.

Miami (6-9) ended the night with only 11 players available.

Besides playing without Butler, Bradley, Leonard and Herro, the Heat also didn’t have Chris Silva because of a hip flexor strain and then lost Harkless for the night after he lost his footing under the basket, which resulted in the thigh injury.

Harkless was making only his third start of the season, in a group with Adebayo, Olynyk, Dragic and Robinson.

Harkless hit both his field goal attempts (two threes) and defended Harden effectively, but his night ended after 10 minutes because of the injury.

Okpala, who opened the second half, scored three points in 10 minutes.