Miami Heat fail to the Brooklyn Nets, as defense comes up short

Although the Miami Heat generally pride themselves on their defense, it came up short on Thursday, in a loss against the Brooklyn Nets.

The Miami Heat fell short 107-88 on Thursday night, to the Brooklyn Nets. And while they didn’t pull off their second preseason win, there were still positives to take away from the game.

Tyler Johnson finished the night with 21 points, once again leading the Heat in their first two contests. This bodes extremely well for the second unit, now realizing they have a solid point guard to lead them in transition.

Hassan Whiteside also played well, finishing the night with 19 points, showing resilience and toughness in the paint (especially compared to their first game). With 8-of-12 shooting paired with nine rebounds and two blocks, Whiteside also provided those much needed second-chance opportunities around the rim.

James Johnson continued to excel by basically finding the right niches in transition plays. And as for Justise Winslow? He, as always, found a way to get involved physically defensively, as well as showed energy on offense; both key traits that will be on full display this season, as he bounces back from an injury year.

The downfall wasn’t the fact that this team didn’t produce a solid game offensively.

Instead, it was that they never found the right lineup to defend against this gritty Nets team. The good news being that hopefully, this shouldn’t be a major issue moving forward.

Between head coach Erik Spoelstra still testing out different rotations throughout preseason and the addition of Kelly Olynyk and a healthy Winslow, Miami should have their defense figured out by the start of regular season play. The team now has a chance to really test out the outcomes of basically every possible scenario in the playbook, in order to avoid losses like this in the future.

While the Heat aren’t guaranteed a full slate of wins, their depth does give them the luxury of having multiple successful rotations. And with that versatility in hand, expect Miami to have the capability to take on just about any opponent.

Next: Miami Heat forward Justise Winslow is making a comeback

The Miami Heat will be tipping off their third preseason game versus the Orlando Magic this evening, at 7 PM ET.