Second half meltdown
The Miami Heat had a mostly-dominant first half after their shaky opening to the game. They took a 69-57 lead into halftime and appeared to be in charge, but they let the Nets grab some traction in the third quarter and never recovered.
The Nets outscored the Heat 32-20 in the third quarter to tie the game going into the fourth, and they out-executed late to put the game away.
The Miami Heat have been a top clutch team this season, but they were exposed as the game went on. Brooklyn dominated on the boards thanks to Allen’s 11 rebounds and DeAndre Jordan‘s 10 boards, and the Heat were never able to make them pay for their second half misses.
Rebounding issues
Speaking of those rebounding issues, this is one of those aforementioned demons. This is the 13th time the Heat have lost the rebounding battle, and they are 2-11 in those games. Incredibly, the Heat are tied with the Philadelphia 76ers with the best rebounding percentage in the NBA at 52.7 percent, but when things go badly on the boards, they go very badly.
The Nets are a reasonable rebounding team, just outside the top 10 at 50.7 percent, but being dominated on the glass 51-40 is inexcusable against just about anybody when you have the rebounding pedigree of the Heat.