Nets turn up defense, step on gas down stretch to beat Heat

The Nets’ Big 3 didn’t put up the kind of offensive numbers they are used to racking up, combining for 56 points, which was 40 fewer than two nights earlier. But they got 10 straight stops in a fourth-quarter rally to give them the numbers that mattered at the end of a 98-85 victory over the Heat on Monday night at Barclays Center.

Every time the Nets took the lead in the back-and-forth game, they struggled to get separation. Kevin Durant buried a three at the 6:47 mark for an 81-78 edge and it extended his career-best streak of 20-point games to 14.

The Heat cut their deficit to one and missed a couple of chances to regain the lead before a left-wing three by James Harden triggered a 15-0 Nets surge for a 96-80 lead with 1:28 remaining on a jumper by Harden, who scored 10 points in that span. Hard to believe the NBA’s highest-scoring team found itself in a defensive struggle. But it really was all about getting stops down the stretch and three Heat turnovers in that span were huge.

"Offensively, we didn’t play well, but defensively, we were active and made it tough for them," said Harden, who shot 4-for-5 and had 10 fourth-quarter points. "I was just being aggressive. I wasn’t aggressive early in the game against that zone. But they went man\[-to-man\] a couple of times, and I got going.

"We kept going back and forth, but we wanted to finish the fourth quarter the right way. Defensively, we held them to 14 points, and I tried looking for my shot."

Durant led the Nets (11-8) with 20 points and 13 rebounds, Harden added 20 points and eight assists and Irving had 16 points and eight rebounds.

The Heat (6-10) got 26 points from Bam Adebayo and 21 from Goran Dragic. They held the Nets to 28.9% three-point shooting (11-for-38), but they shot only 36.9% from the field (31-for-84) and 25.6% from three-point range (11-for- 43). The Heat were missing Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, Avery Bradley and Meyers Leonard all for the second straight game.

The Nets led by as much as 18 points in their win over the Heat on Saturday but even though they had to hold on down the stretch, they still scored 128 points against a variety of tough zone defenses the Heat employed.

Whatever adjustments the Heat made to their defense certainly worked to perfection in the first half.

The Nets managed only 15 first-quarter points to trail by six at the end of the period. They only were marginally better in the second period when they came back to take a brief one-point lead before settling for a 45-41 halftime deficit.

In the third quarter, the lead changed hands 10 times, including a buzzer-beating right-wing three Adebayo made to put the Heat on top 71-70 at the end of the period.

Although Harden has focused primarily on playmaking since joining the Nets, he took over on offense in the fourth quarter.

"I give James his space offensively, I mean, he’s one of the greatest offensive players to ever play the game," Nets coach Steve Nash said.

"I trust in him figuring out where he’s at with his game and how he can affect the game. He got a little aggressive, got on a little roll and made some plays and showed what a tough cover he is."

Durant made two threes in the final period and grabbed five rebounds to key the defensive effort.

"Defense won that game for us," Durant said. "We were able to be locked in defensively, which kept our energy high . . . . We’ve got to stay solid through it all, and I think tonight was a good test."

By Greg Logan

Gregory.Logan@newsday.comGregLogan1

Greg Logan has worked for Newsday since 1982 covering a wide array of sports and events, currently including the Brooklyn Nets beat.