New York — – Kevin DurantIt looked like a good shot all the way through, which would have given the Brooklyn Nets a lead less than a minute on the left.
After a month and a half of misery without their star, the curlers couldn’t have asked for a better scenario than Durant taking the three potential light signal in his comeback.
“I played on the Olympic team with KD, so a lot of times his shots look like they’re going in,” Pam Adebayo He said. “I just missed it.”
After their season went sideways when Durant fell, the nets will need those to start falling — and he thinks they will.
“I felt great,” Durant said. “I’m going to get better, more comfortable there.”
He couldn’t stop the Nets’ slip, as Adebayo scored 30 points, 11 rebounds and six assists to lead Miami to a 113-107 victory on Thursday night.
Tyler Hero He added 27 points for the Eastern Heat, who recovered from a tough loss in Milwaukee the night before with a thrilling victory despite the absence of some of their notable players.
Durant scored 31 points in his first game since Jan. 15 and came back from 21 games with a sprained left knee ligament, inspiring the Nets to lead by 16 points. But Miami tightened its defense in the second half and repelled a late push into the net.
Durant had a 3-point attempt from the spot that would have given the netting the lead in and out with 57 seconds left, and the Heat worked on the inside to Adebayo on the possession that followed for a 111-107 advantage with 35 seconds left.
Curling 32-32. They were 5-16 Don Durant, slipping all the way from second in the Eastern Conference to eighth. Only the Knicks (3-16) and the Rockets (3-15) have been worse since Jan. 16, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Brooklyn was still without Keri Irving And the Ben Simmons On Thursday, even Durant was not enough against the leaders of the Eastern Conference. Bruce Brown He scored 21 points for the Nets, who played a third consecutive game without coach Steve Nash, who was put into health and safety protocols on Monday. Jack Vaughn runs the team again.
Adebayo was 12 against 15 from the field and Caleb Martin He added 22 points for Miami. Max Strauss was 21.
The heat was without Jimmy Butler (left big toe), Kyle Lowry (Personal reasons) and PJ Tucker (left knee) on the second night from noon to noon. They fell 120-119 in Milwaukee, a game they led by 14 points midway through the fourth quarter.
“We had such a bad taste in our mouths after we lost last night,” Strauss said. “I think we should have won that game too, so coming back tonight with the players, the team we had, was a special game and we will remember it for the rest of the season.”
Durant missed 3-pointers on his first two shots, then made four throws in the first quarter for a nine-point lead and a 35-23 lead.
He still had those nine points with less than two-and-a-half minutes left in the game, then converted a three-point play, dropping a jump and three eight-pointers in one minute as Brooklyn advanced 67-60 to a halt.
Heat coach Eric Spoelstra turned to the defense of the area and the Heat Bents grabbed 17 points and shot 6 to 28 in the third quarter, and 88-84 advanced to the fourth.
“Sebo deceives us in this area,” he said. Goran Dragic, the former Heat goalkeeper who started his first game with the net. “They played really well in the area. We kind of lost the pace of the match.”
Hint
Heat: Miami shot 51.9% from the field. … Duncan Robinson He missed all three shots but has seven assists.
Nets: The net announced in a statement that Joe Harris Will be Another operation on his left ankle And miss the rest of the season. Harris, who has led the NBA with a 3-point shooting percentage in two of the past three seasons, has been trying to come back after undergoing ankle surgery on November 29th…this season.
Simmons case
Simmons’ back started to act as he tried to build his conditioning after not playing at all this season for Philadelphia. General Manager Sean Marks said in an interview with the team’s YES radio network that Simmons has rehabilitated the injury in the past week or so, and will then move to individual work.
“Hopefully, by the end of next week, he’s going to be more involved in the team environment and then we can really ramp it up and start making the game look and so on,” Marks said, adding that there was no timeline for what Simmons could play. .
next one
Heat: Philadelphia hosts Saturday.
NETWORKS: Visit Boston on Sunday.