NBA 2K20 Predicts: Can the Miami Heat beat the Brooklyn Nets?

The Miami Heat travel to the state of New York to face the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night. What does NBA 2K20 have to say about the matchup?

In our ongoing NBA 2K20 game-day preview series, we turn to Friday night’s game between the Miami Heat and the Brooklyn Nets. The Heat bring their 27-10 record on the road to face the 16-20 Nets.

We’ve been predicting game outcomes for the Heat using NBA 2K20 for almost a month, and to this point we’ve only gotten three games incorrect. Once again we’ll look to the advanced predictive powers of NBA 2K to get an idea of what to expect in this game between the Heat and Nets.

First, the ground rules. We modified the Nets’ lineup to reflect their rotation and minutes from their last game, a 111-103 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday. As for the Heat, we’ll mirror the slow re-integration Justise Winslow is taking and limit his minutes to 16. We’ll follow the Heat minutes and rotation as closely as possible relative to their past few games.

In order to reflect the Heat’s defensive tendencies, we moved up head coach Erik Spoelstra’s run zone tendency from five percent to 50 percent. We also changed Bam Adebayo’s secondary position to power forward since Meyers Leonard’s positions look that way. Lastly,we edited Tyler Herro, Jimmy Butler, and Adebayo’s vitals to allow them to initiate the offense.

Starting lineups

Miami Heat

Point guard, Kendrick Nunn

Shooting guard, Duncan Robinson

Small forward, Jimmy Butler

Power forward, Bam Adebayo

Center, Meyers Leonard

Brooklyn Nets

Point guard, Spencer Dinwiddie

Shooting guard, Joe Harris

Small forward, Rodions Kurucs

Power forward, Taurean Prince

Center, Jarrett Allen

Outcome

Nets 119, Heat 100

For the second straight game, NBA 2K20 predicts a Heat loss by a wide margin. The last time, against the Indiana Pacers, 2K20 was wrong. Hopefully for Heat fans in a blowout loss to the simulated Brooklyn Nets, it will be wrong again.

The Nets got off to a hot start, winning the first quarter 34-26. The Heat chipped away here and there throughout the game, but the Nets outscored them 31-21 in the final stanza to put it away for good.

Both teams shot well from 3-point range, with the Nets going 13-of-29 (45 percent) and the Heat going 11-of 26 (42 percent), but the Heat only shot 27-of-63 (43 percent again) from 2-point range against the Nets’ 33-of-62 (53 percent).

Player stats

Miami Heat

Kendrick Nunn – 10 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists

Duncan Robinson – 10 points, 2 rebounds

Jimmy Butler – 15 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block

Bam Adebayo – 12 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block

Meyers Leonard – 13 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block

Justise Winslow – 3 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists

Goran Dragic – 17 points, 2 assists

Tyler Herro – 17 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal

Brooklyn Nets

Spencer Dinwiddie – 17 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal

Joe Harris – 19 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist

Rodions Kurucs – 9 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals

Taurean Prince – 20 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist

Jarrett Allen – 14 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist, 5 blocks

Caris LaVert – 22 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists

Make sure to check back Sunday morning for our next projections between the Miami Heat and the New York Knicks.