Miami Dominates Brooklyn Nets
On Wednesday night, Brooklyn Nets forward Reggie Evans showed why it might not be the best idea to rip LeBron James; the Heat eviscerated the Nets 105-85 (they were favored by only two points), their 13th straight victory over the Nets. Evans had said before the game that the Heat’s championship last season wasn’t that impressive because the league was coming off a lockout, and that LeBron’s individual game wasn’t different from anyone else’s in the league. LeBron responded with his typical no-nonsense dominance, racking up 24 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
“Our team is defending the Miami Heat. If our team has to defend one person, LeBron isn’t going to score nothing. LeBron is no different from Joe Johnson or Andray Blatche. No different,” Evans said. “People need help (on defense). Some people don’t need help. Everybody has to be double-teamed, it doesn’t matter who you are. You just have to stop LeBron in transition. He’s quick in transition. If you look at Joe Johnson — Joe Johnson has two or three people trying to stop him. Whoever is guarding him.”
However, for all of Evans’ yapping, the Heat won by 30 points – and on the road, no less. Miami made 11 of 19 three point attempts and shot 52 percent from the field as a team, a sure-fire blowout recipe. They made seven of their first ten shots, and while Brooklyn made a push later on in the game, the Heat outscored the nets 36-14 in the third quarter and iced the game. James and Dwayne Wade, who scored 21 points in the game, watched a significant portion of the fourth quarter from the bench, a position the Miami Heat should be delighted to see them in. It’s undeniable that James and the rest of the Heat took motivation from Evans’ comments, so the rest of the league should make sure their tongues don’t wag before a big home stand against the defending champs.
“You can’t just come out and say something like that versus a champion,” James said. “No one knows what it takes unless you’ve done it. You can’t sit here and judge and talk about a team winning a championship unless you’ve done it. (Evans) hasn’t done it… I let my game do the talking. I’m not going to sit here and give Reggie Evans a lot of press, because that is what is going to happen for the next couple days.”
Despite this embarrassing loss, the Brooklyn Nets actually find themselves in a pretty good position for the Eastern Conference playoffs. They’re c urrently 27-19 and the fourth overall seed in the East, though number one-seeded Miami showed them on Wednesday that there’s still a sizeable gap between them and the rest of the conference. With an average point differential of six on the season (only the Spurs, Thunder and Clippers have more efficient offensively), the Heat can utterly dominate on both ends of the floor in a way that most of their c competitors in the East can only dream of.
“We just knew we could play better,” Wade said after the 30-point victory over the Nets. “That’s all we talked about in the locker room was `Listen, we can’t turn the ball over,’ and to play that well to start the game off and to give the lead back and it’s tied coming into halftime, that’s not what we want to do. Our job, we want to get better on the road, not get worse, so I thought we took a step forward.”
With play like they displayed on Wednesday, the Heat will find themselves favored by two points (and a whole lot more) more often than not moving forward when they take to the road.
