NEW YORK: With a two-digit lead reduced to just one point in the final quarter of Saturday night’s Brooklyn Nets game against the Miami Heat, Kyrie Irving took over. He splashed in clutch triples, disposed of dispositions and made key free throws to help the Nets secure a 128-124 victory.
Throughout the stretch, Irving said his mindset was, “It’s time to win.”
“I’ve always said that throughout my career,” Irving said. “When you get to that point, you obviously just want to protect yourself on the defensive end, stop and I felt like we were doing it.”
The win came in a two-game losing streak for the Nets, who dropped a couple of games to the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this week. Irving’s 18 points in the fourth quarter were the highest he’s scored in a final quarter since joining Brooklyn.
“We had two losses where we had to learn very quickly,” Irving said. “And we just moved on the next night. And I feel like we’ve given the effort in shoots and obviously we want to have more consistency in that, and that will take time. I’m happy with the effort tonight.”
Irving finished with 28 points. Kevin Durant scored 31 points for the Nets, while Joe Harris added 23 points, including set 3. James Harden added 12 points and 11 assists.
Bam Adebayo finished with a maximum of 41 points in the race, five rebounds and nine assists for the Heat.
“It was time for Bam to have 40 in terms of getting a lot of those moves he’s been working on during the off-season,” Irving said. “Just watching him grow from high school, being able to take over right now for an uncontrolled Miami team, it’s good to see that.”
The Nets entered Saturday’s game with the goal of improving defensively. Although they could not completely contain Adebayo, there were improvement flashes.
After beating Cleveland 50-29 Friday, the Nets were reduced to a defensive rebound against the Heat. Brooklyn had a defensive rebound percentage of 81.3% on Saturday, the third-highest in a game this season, compared to just 58.1% the night before.
Nets coach Steve Nash continued to experiment with the team’s three All-Stars formations. Harden played 11 minutes with Durant and Irving on the bench. And while Harden’s twelve points were the lowest since January 2020, his five straight games with double-digit assists have already tied in the fourth-longest streak of this type in Nets history.
“It feels good not to have to score so much to give us a chance to win a game,” Harden said. “I can go out there and just be a game creator and shoot my shot when it’s available and still involve the guys, and I still have a chance to win the game.”
“That’s a change,” Harden added. “But for me just being the player I am, impacting the game from other different ways of scoring.”
After the contest, Irving and Adebayo tried to change T-shirts on the court, before a Heat security guard took him to Adebayo. This season, changing shirts on the field is a violation of NBA coronavirus safety and health regulations.
“I just want to follow NBA protocol,” Irving said smiling before adding, “I have the shirt, by the way.”