MIAMI — Observations and other notes of interest from Tuesday night’s 124-98 victory over the Brooklyn Nets:
– For the Heat, as in recent games against tanking teams Utah (a loss) and Memphis (a win), coach Erik Spoelstra said the emphasis had to be about their own game.
– “We have some experience with it. We know what’s at stake,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat also hosting the Nets on Thursday night.
– As in the Nets who want to lose.
– As in the lottery-chasing Nets who need to lose.
– What time in the NBA, when only one of the two teams shows up wanting to win.
– “Each night is a different challenge,” Spoelstra said. “This is what the league is. You don’t necessarily know who’s going to play, what they’re playing for, whatever.”
– He added, “It doesn’t, it really doesn’t matter at this point.”
– Spoelstra said the motivation has to come from within.
– “We’re trying to compete at a high level, to get as close as we can to our best version and keep on improving that,” he said.
– So, Spoelstra said, against a contender or a team prioritizing the lottery, the touchstones remain the same.
– “You can’t look past anyone, and that’s our focus right now,” he said. “It’s just to try to get to our identity, and the names will change. The prep will be the same. But we got to have a disposition that’s consistent, and we can bank on night in, night out.”
– With Davion Mitchell pushing through his shoulder contusion and Norman Powell (groin) still out, the Heat for the second consecutive game opened with Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Pelle Larsson, Andrew Wiggins and Bam Adebayo.
– Wiggins had been on the injury report earlier in the day with knee tendinitis.
– The Nets opened with a lineup of Nolan Traore, Terance Mann, Michael Porter Jr., Noah Clowney and Nic Claxton.
– Kel’el Ware and Jaime Jaquez Jr. entered together first off the Heat bench.
– With Kasparas Jakucionis and Simone Fontecchio in next.
– During that substitution, Adebayo returned to play alongside Ware.
– That initial rotation had Dru Smith out of the mix.
– Herro in the second period was called for a technical foul for the second second game for yapping. This time it was with Clowney, after his Saturday words with the Rockets’ Kevin Durant.
– Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said the goal for his lottery-prioritizing team coming into such a game is, to be, “ready to fight.”
– Fernandez called the Heat “a team that is very physical, that they use their hands very well, that you’re going to have to handle their physicality. And I think that’s good for us. It’s going to help us. It’s going to make us bring the best of ourselves.”
– Fernandez said he had no concerns of potential South Beach flu, with the Nets in Miami for four consecutive days.
– “Work and have fun, and if you have fun together, it’s even better,” he said. “So I think that brings them together. That team chemistry is important. When you travel and you’re on the road is when you spend time together. So I always encourage the guys that if they have to go to dinner, whatever they want to do, I think those things build relationships and chemistry.”
– Former Heat guard Goran Dragic was among those in attendance.