,'' Dinwiddie said. ''Technically, right read, errant pass on my part. I have to take full responsibility for that.'' Brooklyn's Caris LeVert, who was questionable coming into the game with a right hand contusion, scored 15 points and capped a productive month, averaging 21.2 points in February.Miami, which was also playing on consecutive days, led 57-49 at halftime after Dragic hit a running 3-pointer at the buzzer.The Heat opened up an 11-point lead early in the third quarter after Nunn hit a 3 at the top of the key for a 62-51 advantage. The 3-pointer also gave Nunn the Heat rookie record for most 3s in a season. He finished with three 3-pointers in the game, giving him 116 on the season, and passing Mario Chalmers's mark of 114 set in 2008-09.''His scoring has meant a lot to us,'' Spoelstra said. ''He's fearless, he can get his own shot, he has the 3-point range, but he can also get to the rim.'' Miami's Derrick Jones Jr. slammed home a one-handed dunk cutting through the lane and receiving a pass from Dragic to bring the crowd to its feet and moments later drilled a 3 from the wing for an 80-69 lead, prompting Atkinson to call timeout.TIP-INSNets: Brooklyn was over .500 in November (9-6) but has not had a winning record in any month since. ... Saturday started a stretch where the Nets are playing nine times in a 14-game stretch against likely playoff clubs. ... The Nets have not won on a leap year date since 1992. They lost Feb. 29 games in 1996, 2004 and 2016.Heat: Saturday's game was the first home Feb. 29 game in Heat history. They played road games on the leap year in 1992, 2000, 2004 and 2008. ... Miami had a losing record in February for the third straight season. ... Miami's sixth field-goal attempt Saturday night was the team's 5,000th of the season. Every other team reached 5,000 shots before Saturday, and the Heat are taking the fewest field-goal attempts per game in the league so far this season.HEAT SN ASSIST STREAKThe Heat recorded 27 assists as a team, snapping a streak of four straight games of posting at least 30 in a game. The franchise record was five straight set in 1990.UP NEXTNets: Visit Boston on Tuesday.Heat: Host Milwaukee on Monday.)
Feb 29, 2020Adversity has struck the Miami Heat for most of February, while it is a recent development for the Brooklyn Nets. Only the Heat did enough on Friday night to get a reprieve from their recent woes.The teams will be looking to start getting on a hot streak Saturday night when Miami hosts Brooklyn in the second night of a back-to-back for both.Miami (37-22) enters in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, one half-game ahead of Philadelphia and two in front of sixth-place Indiana. The Heat were tied with Boston for third place after a 137-106 win over Philadelphia on Feb. 3 but are 3-7 in their last 10 games.Miami's rough patch includes road losses to the Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz, but it also features three losses to teams well under .500 in Cleveland, Atlanta and Minnesota.On Friday, the Heat rebounded from back-to-back close defeats by controlling most of the fourth quarter in a 126-118 home win over Dallas. The Heat scored the first 13 points of the fourth quarter and outscored Dallas 38-25 in the final 12 minutes after blowing a 12-point lead in the third."I liked seeing that fourth quarter, just managing as Pat (Riley) used to say, (the) game can be broken into skirmishes," Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. "And they won a key one in the third quarter. I was encouraged (by) how we responded to that. We had to gut something out against a really good team." Gutting it out against Dallas occurred after late collapses in the previous two games. On Monday, the Heat held an 18-point lead after three quarters in Cleveland and Wednesday, they squandered a 12-point lead in the final 4:22.Jimmy Butler scored 26 points for his highest point total since getting 38 on Feb. 3, while Duncan Robinson added 24, his most since getting 34 against Atlanta on Dec. 10.Brooklyn endured 12 losses in 14 games from Dec. 26-Jan. 23 and then entered the All-Star break with seven wins in 10 games. Since the break, the Nets have dropped four of five, allowing an average of 112.8 points.The first three losses in the stretch were close, but Friday's 141-118 loss in Atlanta got away from the Nets in the fourth quarter. They were within six early in the fourth but were outscored 33-16 over the final 10-plus minutes."We are seventh in the league in defense, and tonight we looked like were 800th in defense." Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson said. "We lost our defensive identity tonight. It's one game. I'm not going to change things and go crazy." The Nets allowed their most points since Oct. 18, 2017 at Indiana and a total of 19 3-pointers. The ugly defensive night came after Brooklyn lost on a last-second shot by Jerome Robinson Wednesday in Washington, and after the Nets coughed up a 19-point lead in a 115-113 home loss to Orlando on Monday.Spencer Dinwiddie scored 24 points for the Nets, who allowed the Hawks to shoot 52 percent Friday.The slump also dropped the Nets into eighth place in the East and a half-game behind the Magic, who are on a three-game winning streak.The teams split a pair of meetings in Brooklyn defined by fourth-quarter runs. On Dec. 1, the Heat scored the final 10 points in a 109-106 win and Jan. 12 Brooklyn used a game-ending 17-4 run to get a 117-113 win.--Field Level Media
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