The Nets snapped their longest losing skid of the season. And they’re not liable to care who they did it against.
Brooklyn easily disposed of depleted Miami, 112-97, before a sellout crowd of 17,817 at Barclays Center.
It started a five-game homestand and ended a three-game slump for Brooklyn (7-8), who’ll host Chicago on Sunday.
Mikal Bridges had a game-high 24 points and six rebounds. Spencer Dinwiddie (14 points, 11 assists) and Cam Johnson (19 points, 10 boards, game-high plus-29) had double-doubles for the Nets, who put their entire starting lineup in double figures.
“It was good. It could kind of be a trap game, them on a back-to-back,” Bridges said afterward in an on-court interview.
“Yeah, every game is important. Hopefully at the end of the night, we’re, what, 7-8 in 15 games and don’t have a three-game losing streak and break out of that,” coach Jacque Vaughn said. “So that’s what’s the most important thing, is [this] game. I won’t look beyond that.
“Whatever game presents itself, that’s the important game for our group. We got to continue to get better on a nightly basis. That’s a challenge for this group to continue to grow together and continue to learn how to play with each other on both ends of the floor, communicate with each other. Tonight, we get an opportunity to do that.”
Granted, the Heat essentially took a scheduled loss on the tail end of a back-to-back — without star Jimmy Butler (ankle), center Bam Adebayo (hip) and wing Duncan Robinson (thumb). But the Nets had problems of their own and aren’t in the business of throwing back victories.
Still without leading scorer Cam Thomas and engine Ben Simmons themselves, Brooklyn had dropped three in a row, starting with getting physically roughed up Nov. 16 in South Florida. This time around, with the shorthanded Heat in their building, they returned the favor, led by Bridges.
“I was really impressed with him. He’s a pro’s pro,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said of Bridges. “Everything you heard about him, read about him, he was that and more. Much more than, probably, his role initially in this league, but you do have to also credit him for buying into that role and being part of a great team.
“He was part of some really good teams out there in Phoenix, and then when he had an opportunity to grow and shoulder way more responsibilities offensively here, he’s shown that he can handle that. He was a key part of the team this summer. His versatility, defensively, we basically put him on everybody. The point of attack, whoever that, whether it was one, two or three, we put him on that player. He just did a lot of winning things. I was really impressed with him on and off the court. Just a high-quality individual.”
Vaughn has been preaching and pleading for his Nets to be more aggressive and risk-taking on defense. After coming into Saturday dead last in the league in opponent turnovers with just 11.3, they appeared more active in harassing Miami into 18.
It’s hard to say how much of that was the Nets and how much of that was the quality of opposition. What’s safe to say is they’ll take the end result.
The Nets came out the starting blocks quickly. Dinwiddie found Johnson for a 3-pointer that put them ahead 16-5 just 5:20 into the game, and they still led by 10 going into halftime.
Bridges padded the lead in the third. He hit a 3-pointer off a Johnson feed for a 74-59 cushion and followed with a baseline drive to make it 76-59.
It reached 21 in the fourth, and Vaughn pulled his starters up 108-90 with 3:21 left to play. The rest was garbage time, with teenage first-round picks Dariq Whitehead and Noah Clowney — the two youngest draftees in franchise history — both making their NBA debuts in the closing minutes.
Caleb Martin led Miami with 22.