NEW YORK – With a two-figure 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, made driving arrangements and made key free throws to help lift the Nets to a 128-124 victory.
Stretching, Irving said his mentality was, “It’s time to win.”
“I’ve always said that throughout my career,” Irving said. “When it gets to that point, obviously you just want to tense up on the defensive end, stop and I felt like I did it.”
The win yielded a two-game losing streak for the Nets, who gave up a pair of games at the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this week. Irving’s 18 points in the fourth quarter were the most he’s scored in the last quarter since entering Brooklyn.
“We had two losses in which we had to learn very quickly,” Irving said. “And I just moved on the next night. And I feel like we put the effort into the spurts, and obviously we want to have more consistency in that – and that will take time. I am satisfied with the effort tonight. “
Irving finished with 28 points. Kevin Durant scored 31 points for the Nets, while Joe Harris added 23 points, including seven 3. James Harden added 12 points and 11 assists.
Bam Adebayo finished with 41 career points, five rebounds and nine assists for the Heat.
“It was time for Bam to have 40 in terms of getting the many actions he worked on in the off-season,” Irving said. “Just looking at him growing up in high school, being able to take on some kind of undeveloped team in Miami right now, it’s good to see.”
The Nets entered the game on Saturday in order to improve defensively. Although they could not fully contain Adebayo, there were glimmers of improvement.
After beating Cleveland 50-29 on Friday, the Nets hesitated in the defensive comeback against the Heat. Brooklyn had a defensive recovery rate 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 teams involving three All-Stars of the team. Harden played 11 minutes with Durant and Irving on the bench. And while Harden’s 12 points were the lowest of January 2020, his five consecutive double-digit games have already tied for the fourth-longest series 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 there and be a game player and take pictures when it’s available and involve the boys – and yet I have a chance to win the game.”
“This is a change,” Harden added. “But for me, being just the player I am, impacting the game in other ways besides scoring.”
After the contest, Irving and Adebayo tried to exchange T-shirts on the field before a Heat security agent led Adebayo. This season, changing shirts on the field is a violation of the health and safety rules of the NBA coronavirus.
“I just want to follow the NBA protocol,” Irving said with a smile, before adding, “By the way, I have the shirt.”