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Heat 94, Nets 82
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
MIAMI — The Miami Heat continued their perfect run through the 2014 NBA playoffs, beating the Brooklyn Nets 94-82 on Thursday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Forward LeBron James led Miami with 22 points as the Heat took a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference best-of-seven semifinal series. The Heat swept the Charlotte Bobcats in four games in the opening round.
For all the talk of the Nets’ four straight regular-season wins over the Heat this season, Miami has dominated Brooklyn in the playoffs through the years. The Heat are now 10-1 against the Nets in the postseason, including five wins in a row.
Heat forward Chris Bosh added 18 points and guard Dwyane Wade had 14. Guard Ray Allen scored 13 points off the bench.
Brooklyn was led by reserve forward Mirza Teletovic, who made six 3-pointers and finished with 20 points. But he had just two points in the decisive fourth quarter and five in the second half.
Nets guard Shaun Livingston had 15 points and Nets forward Joe Johnson and Paul Pierce contributed 13 each.
Brooklyn guard Deron Williams was held scoreless, missing all nine of his shots from the field.
Nets center Kevin Garnett, who was held scoreless in Game 1, had four points. He did have a game-high 12 rebounds, however.
The Heat outscored the Nets 24-21 in the third quarter to take a 69-67 lead. Allen, who had 10 points in the quarter, was the biggest factor for the Heat.
Brooklyn was limited to 35 percent shooting from the field in the third, its worst quarter of the game to that point.
Both teams started poorly. The Heat missed their first five shots from the field but trailed just 2-0.
Miami, which scored just four fast-break points in the first game of the series, seemed to get untracked when James converted an alley-oop pass from midcourt into a basket.
But Brooklyn was sound defensively overall and led 21-15 after the first quarter. The Nets held the best-shooting team in the NBA to 33.3 percent from the floor.
The Nets, who shot 58.8 percent, won the rebounding battle 12-7 and got eight points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field from Livingston in the first quarter.
Miami won the second quarter, but the Nets still led 46-45 at halftime, thanks to the hot shooting of Teletovic, who made four 3-pointers in the second quarter. Teletovic had 15 points at the half.
For the Heat, James had 11 points, Bosh 10 and Wade four at halftime.
The series shifts to Brooklyn for Game 3 on Saturday.
NOTES: Thursday’s game was consecutive sellout No. 199 for Miami. … Both teams started the same lineups as in Game One. … Heat PF Chris Andersen, who suffered a knee contusion on Tuesday, was back in action on Thursday, coming in off the bench in the first quarter. … Nets F Paul Pierce turned his right ankle in the first quarter but remained in the game. … Nets SG Shaun Livingston twisted his right knee in the first quarter but stayed in the game.
