Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat start three-game road trip with a win in Brooklyn

The Heat ended their five-game losing streak and held the scrappy Nets to 96 points in Brooklyn, tying their season best for contained opponent scoring. But it came at a tougher challenge than anticipated. 

They went big with Kel’el Ware next to Bam Adebayo in the main rotation, which was more common at the beginning of the year, and it helped them outrebound their opponents by eight. 

If one didn’t know any better, they might think that absences to Tyler Herro, Nikola Jović and Pelle Larsson contributed to them tying their fourth-lowest scoring game of the season. But that wasn’t the case. Adebayo, Dru Smith and Davion Mitchell blanked 10 3-pointers. Although Adebayo had 17 rebounds, and the three of them guarded like madmen.  

The crew rode the wave of Ware plus Jaime Jaquez Jr.’s rim attacks, and Norman Powell’s outside shooting. That was enough to offset Michael Porter Jr. and Nic Clayton carrying the Nets. 

The Heat started the fourth quarter ahead by four points and managed to get away despite shooting 33% in the restricted area for the period. They also benefited from Brooklyn’s poor off-ball execution and their inability to be a factor from deep. 

The Heat even gave rookie Kasparas Jakučionis seven minutes of action in his second stint of the season, and Ware was notably one of the closers in the game. The team pushing the lead to double digits made coach Erik Spoelstra comfortable with giving Adebayo more rest. 

It’s concerning that their transition attack was eradicated to 47th percentile (123.1 points per 100 plays) and their pace was 5.58 points below its average. They struggle when opponents exude equal hustle. Yet, to their credit, they won in a style that isn’t preferred, similar to a brawler having to rely on more technical skills to get a victory. 

The Heat’s record improved to 15-12 and to 5-8 on the road. They are tied with the Philadelphia 76ers for the sixth seed and 1.5 games out of third place in the East.

The next two are in Boston on Friday and New York on Sunday.