MIAMI (AP) — Bam Adebayo’s 13-foot jumper rattled in as time expired, and the Miami Heat defeated the Brooklyn Nets 109-107 on Sunday to snap a three-game slide.
Adebayo had 21 points and 15 rebounds for the Heat, who trailed by six points in the final minutes before finishing the game on a 10-2 run. Goran Dragic scored 18 points, Kendrick Nunn scored 17 and Trevor Ariza had 15 for Miami.
Landry Shamet had 30 points for Brooklyn, and Kyrie Irving scored 20 for the Nets. Brooklyn played again without James Harden, sidelined with a hamstring issue, and lost Kevin Durant early in the first quarter with a left thigh contusion.
Jimmy Butler — who called the Heat “soft” after their loss Friday in Minnesota — was held out by Miami with a sprained right ankle, his 16th game missed this season.
It was close the entire way, Miami never leading by more than seven, Brooklyn never by more than five until the final minutes. The Heat matched that seven-point edge when Dragic’s layup with 6:50 remaining made it 99-92, but the Nets scored the next 13 points to reclaim the lead.
Bruce Brown had a layup to start the spurt, then got an offensive rebound into the hands of Joe Harris to set up a 3-pointer, and Shamet made back-to-back 3s to put the Nets up by four. Those 11 points came in a span of exactly 2 minutes, and a goaltending call credited another basket to Harris for a 105-99 lead with 4:04 left.
But Miami controlled the finish, and needed to. A loss would have left Miami 2½ games behind New York in the race for the Eastern Conference’s No. 6 spot that will keep a team out of the play-in tournament. Instead, the Heat remained 1½ back with 15 games remaining.
Durant left 4:03 into the game, after scoring Brooklyn’s first eight points. He was fouled on a drive 1:33 into the contest and missed both free throws — only the second time this season that he went 0 for 2 on a trip to the foul line.
He left not long afterward, and the Nets quickly declared his day over. Durant has missed 33 of Brooklyn’s 57 games.
