Nets

The Charlotte Hornets visit the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday for a game with major postseason implications. Both squads are playing well, as Brooklyn has won se.

Charlotte is the seventh-best team against the spread this season, and that trend continues in a game where they will have every reason to play their best basketball. The key for Charlotte will be to make it more difficult for Irving to get his points this time around, as his 50 point performance came on 79% shooting and 75% from three-point range. With the season tiebreaker on the line and only one game separating them in the standings, both the Hornets and Nets will have every incentive to play their best basketball on Sunday night.

The version of the Nets their fans hope shows up in the playoffs showed up Saturday night in Miami.

With the Nets ahead 96-68, the starters clearly weren’t needed in the fourth. “We took their punch and was able to keep going.” “It was a playoff-like game for us. The Nets led by as many as 37 points before the starters sat out the fourth quarter. And the result was a resounding 110-95 rout of the Eastern Conference-leading Heat before a sellout crowd of 19,600 — including Nets owner Joe Tsai — at FTX Arena. Kevin Durant had 23 points and three steals.

Behind 23 points from Kevin Durant, the Brooklyn Nets handed the Heat their fourth straight loss, knocking Miami back out of first place.

The Heat led New York 90-73 with 11 minutes to go on Friday, then got outscored 38-13 the rest of the way. “One of the best point guards to put on the jersey,” Quinn said. Brooklyn outscored Miami 40-21 in the second quarter to take a 21-point lead into the half. “It means a lot,” Dragic said. The Heat were without coach Erik Spoelstra, who missed the game because of a family matter, and assistant Chris Quinn took his place. “Anytime we get to see him, we love seeing him.

Picture me rollin'. The Brooklyn Nets went into Saturday night's game against the Miami Heat looking to make a statement and keep pace in the playoff race.

Irving and the Nets are fully aware of the importance of this contest, so look for them to make a statement early so they can have Charlotte on their heels. As he continues to develop and get fully comfortable, he'll make the Hornets one of the more enjoyable teams to watchin the NBA now and in the future. The Hornets have been one of the weaker rebounding teams in the NBA this year, and that could be problematic against a big like Andre Drummond. Drum only needed to play 17 minutes last night so he'll be fully energized for this one. In a hilarious twist of fate, it ends against the team where this journey began. At the very least, I won't have to hear some of y'all cook up cockamamie plans theories about the team playing playoff games outside of Barclays Center anymore. The winner of this game will win the season series and that will have major ramifications on a wild Eastern Conference playoff chase. The three point mark represents a career low, so the Nets may be content if he settles for threes instead of attacking the basket. With playoff positioning on the line, every advantage matters and the Barclays crowd can be one if the Nets give them something to cheer for. Picture me rollin'. The Brooklyn Nets went into Saturday night's game against the Miami Heat looking to make a statement and keep pace in the playoff race. KD did his usual thing and shot 50 percent from the field. Miles Bridges is pretty damn good at both and as one of the foundational pieces for Charlotte. The team has asked a lot of him on offense and he's delivered, averaging a career high 20 points a game on a .489/.323/.805 shooting split. Once this one wraps up, they’re right back in the air as they head home to take on the Denver Nuggets on Monday night.

It was Brooklyn's way in Miami that ended in a statement win for what could be an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series come April.

Goran Dragic spent nearly seven years in Miami, being named to his only All-Star team while a member of the Heat. In that time — 392 games, he averaged 16.2 points and 5.2 assists while starting 282 games. Andre Drummond has his sixth double-double as a Net Saturday with 13 points and 11 boards, but he had two highlights that stole the show. With the loss, they move into second in the East, a half game behind the 76ers. It continued to go Brooklyn’s way in the third. Brooklyn overcame the eight-point hole, concluded the first on a 6-0 burst and a Claxton swat at the buzzer to take a 27-25 lead after one. It ended up being one of the best defensive quarters for the Nets in quite some time. At the break, Brooklyn held a 22-17 rebounding advantage, 12-2 fastbreak-point advantage, and a controlling 36-20 advantage. Brooklyn also outscored Miami in the paint (46-34). The Brooklyn Nets cranked up the heat in Miami (pun intended), defeating the Miami Heat, 110-95, Saturday night. More importantly, the team didn’t need Durant, who took an extended breather on the bench, to get it done. Seth Curry had a solid outing, tallying 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 5-of-6 shooting from 3-Point range in 22 minutes. Kyrie Irving, who also didn’t play a single minute in the fourth, finished with 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting overall and 1-of-5 shooting from behind the arc, to go with four boards, six assists, two steals, and only one turnover in 30 minutes.

Having the star point guard available for home games makes Brooklyn better -- but does it make the Nets title contenders?

It was also the ultimate flip-the-switch team of the 21st century NBA. After ranking 22nd in the league in defense in the regular season, that legendary Lakers team posted the best defensive efficiency in the postseason, holding opponents to 97.9 points per 100 possessions en route to a 15-1 playoff record and a second consecutive championship. However, when Irving is involved in the action as the defender on the ball handler, the Nets allow 1.06 points per direct play, which would rank last by any team in the NBA over the past two seasons. Irving's legendary series-winning 3-pointer in 2016 was one of the greatest shots in NBA Finals history and six years later his ability to score in crunch time is still one of his signature skills. Brooklyn's flaw is defense, and in the context of a suddenly loaded Eastern Conference, it might prove fatal. It's fair to ask if Nash, now in the role of head coach, is about to relearn those painful lessons for familiar reasons. In each of the past two seasons in Brooklyn, Irving has posted better than a 60% true shooting mark, a usage rate of at least 30% and a turnover percentage of under 10%. How rare is that? Over the past two seasons, the Nets have switched the fourth-most of any team when defending on-ball screens. When Durant and Irving have shared the floor this season, Brooklyn has posted ridiculous scoring numbers, averaging more than 128 points per 100 possessions. Like many of the best scorers, both Irving and Kevin Durant can generate unassisted buckets at elite levels, especially as jump-shooters. His ability to use his dribble to generate reliable jumpers, runners and layups is one of the prettiest -- and most effective -- sights in the sport right now. Irving's ballhandling ability results in a remarkable blend of high usage, elite efficiency and a low turnover rate that quickly makes it clear just how good he is with the ball in his hands. Instead he can play all eight as Brooklyn looks to hold off Charlotte for eighth in the Eastern Conference and maintain a slightly easier play-in path to the playoffs.