Brooklyn Nets forward Mikal Bridges missed a tightly contested 10-foot jump shot as the seconds ran out in overtime, giving the Miami Heat a 96-95 victory at Barclays Center on Monday.
The Nets sank clutch free throws at the end of regulation to send the game to overtime, but the team's overall poor shooting spelled doom from the jump.
The loss on Martin Luter King, Jr. day left the Nets at 16-23 on the season and 2-8 over their last 10 games, as the steady diet of losses dropped them to 10th in the Eastern Conference and heading toward the draft lottery.
Bridges led the way for the Nets, stuffing the stat sheet with 26 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists, but shot poorly from distance, going 2-10 from the 3-point line.
The Heat, tasked with acclimating forward Jimmy Butler back into the lineup after he missed 11 of their last twelve games with calf and toe issues, trailed the Nets 22-16 after a sluggish first quarter. Nets guard Cam Thomas paced the team with 8 of his 23 points in the first quarter, going 4-5 from the floor. It was Thomas’ only efficient shooting quarter for the night, as he went 3-15 for the rest of the game.
The second quarter was more of the same as both teams shot bricks, especially from deep, with the Nets going 1-11 and the Heat 0-5 from the 3-point line.
Heat fans were in abundance at Barclays Center and were boisterous despite the Nets going into intermission with a 45-31 lead. Inefficient offense was the hallmark of the first 24 minutes, with the Nets shooting 16% and the Heat shooting an incredulous zero percent from the three-point line, making it a first half to forget for both teams.
In the second half, the Heat were hot and cold, shooting 71.4% from three in the third quarter and 14.3% from three in the fourth quarter. Their saving grace was free throws. Butler lived at the free throw line during the second half and overtime, going 11-12 from the charity stripe after intermission and went 15-16 on free throws for the game, nearly half of his game-high 32 points.
The inefficient offense that struck both teams all night was offset by excellent free-throw shooting with the Nets hitting 93.8% of their freebies, while the Heat shot 88% from the line. The difference was the disparity in volume, with the Heat shooting 25 foul shots and the Nets going to the line just 16 times.
The Nets were clutch from the line when it mattered, going 6-6 in the final 1:13 of the fourth quarter to send the game into over time. Tyler Herro broke out of his three-point shooting slump, going 2-2 and scoring 6 of the Heat's 8 points in OT, as the Nets' Bridges, the number two clutch shooter in the NBA (behind Stephen Curry), had a decent look at the basket on a pull-up jumper, but came up short.
The Nets travel to the Pacific Northwest to play the Portland Trailblazers on Wednesday.
