Next up are the Celtics<\/a>, who take 43.3 3-pointers per game, third in the NBA.<\/p>\n\u2013 The Heat went into Thursday night 21st on that list.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Don\u2019t expect Herro back Friday.<\/p>\n
\u2013 And don\u2019t expect another Powell midcourt 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
\u2013 But the Heat have to find a way to baskets that are worth more.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Or else the math problem will follow.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Because up Sunday are the Knicks, who are seventh in the NBA in 3-point attempts per game.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Herro missing a fourth game with a toe contusion, the Heat returned to their big lineup, opening with Kel\u2019el Ware, Bam Adebayo, Wiggins, Powell and Davion Mitchell.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It was Ware\u2019s first start in three games.<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Nets opened with a lineup of\u00a0 Egor D\u00ebmin, Terance Mann, Michael Porter Jr., Noah Clowney and Nic Claxton.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jaquez, Dru Smith and Kasparas Jakucionis entered together first off the Heat bench.<\/p>\n
\u2013 With Fontecchio making it nine deep.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Heat coach Erik Spoelstra entered with the perspective amid the five-game losing streak his team carried into the night.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cYeah, we have been working through it,\u201d he said pregame. \u201cLook, this league is not easy. Even when you\u2019re on a stretch like this, we\u2019re closer than what it would appear. But we just haven\u2019t been able to come away with a win, and that\u2019s all we\u2019re focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 He added, \u201cYou always say you want to be worthy enough to win. These practices and sessions together don\u2019t guarantee anything, but you just keep on stacking up good days. You want to have your team feel like they\u2019re worthy enough to win, and I feel like we are. But we have to do the work in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra said steeling his team remains an ongoing process.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cWe have to have a will to overcome, to handle some things that happen through competition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 He added, \u201cWe take pride in, as an organization and with this team, to be able to, as competitors, find a way to win. Bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Going in, Spoelstra said of getting the team\u2019s game right on the road, \u201cAnything right now. The focus is just on this game. Just to put it together for 48 minutes, if not more, to be able to do enough to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 On that subject, Adebayo said, \u201cThis is an important road trip for us. This is a road trip where it can define how we obviously are seeded. But more importantly, how we are about to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013\u00a0 Of the Heat needing to get more shots up, Adebayo said, \u201cJust take care of the ball. Taking care of the ball makes it easier for us to get shots on goal. So, yeah, that\u2019s the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The game gave the Heat a reunion with forward Haywood Highsmith, who was offloaded in the offseason in a salary-cap move.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Highsmith is recovering from August knee surgery and has yet to play for the Nets.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said Highsmith has been doing on-court work but has yet to begin five-on-five work.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cHe\u2019s in a good place, shows up every day and does his job, is an ultimate pro,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cBut he\u2019s done a good job. And the most important thing to me is his veteran leadership, and how important he is to the rest of the group, especially the young guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 Spoelstra addressed the parting pregame.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u201cThe fact that he initially joined our team during that COVID year, when we really only had seven players during that Texas trip. He made enough of an impression on us that we gave everything we had as a staff to develop him,\u201d Spoelstra said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 He added, \u201cHe gave us everything he had, and he\u2019s carving out a nice role in this league. It shows a lot of perseverance on his part. He had to go through the G League for several years before he even had that opportunity. You just really respect guys that take that kind of journey.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 The Nets after the first quarter paid tribute to the victims of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah Massacre. As\u00a0 part of the solidarity event, a giant \u201cbasketball menorah\u201d was lit by the 14-year-old nephew of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was killed in the attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 Observations and other notes of interest from Thursday night\u2019s 106-95 victory over the Brooklyn Nets:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,85,1263,37821,21,9,24,63,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-75162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-miami-heat","13":"tag-miami-heat-blog","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}