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The Nets looked more interested in South Beach than basketball on Tuesday night, hammered 124-98 by Miami in front of a sellout crowd of 19,700 at Kaseya Center.
It was the kind of desultory performance that had them embarrassed and their coach angry. The Nets (15-46) dropped their ninth straight game, the worst skid in the league and the fifth-longest streak of the Brooklyn era.
“It was an all-around stinker,” admitted Nic Claxton.
“We didn’t make shots. Turned the ball over. Didn’t get back to transition,” Noah Clowney said. “Anything you could do right, we didn’t do it.”
Brooklyn shot just 38.4 percent, and 6-for-32 from deep to tie their season-low in 3-pointers made. They committed 18 turnovers, with 12 of those coming from their rookie point guards Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf.
Michael Porter Jr. managed just nine points, shooting 3-for-17 and 0-for-9 from behind the arc. He got yanked with 9:33 left in the third quarter and didn’t return until 9:43 to play in a clear message from coach Jordi Fernández.
“I want Mike and the first group to play as hard as they can,” Fernández said. “I want to challenge them to do it, because I’ve seen them doing it, especially on the defensive end. If that happens, I can live with whatever happens. If that is there, then you’re being selfless, you’re playing for the team, and just good things happen. I’m trying to just challenge every guy in different ways.”
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Clowney led the Nets with 17 points and Ziaire Williams added 16.
Traore had 14 points but committed six turnovers without a single assist against that Bam Adebayo-led defense. With Egor Dëmin out, Ben Saraf was the backup point guard and had six more turnovers.
“Regardless how they happened, you can’t have that many [turnovers] for that many points. I don’t know how many they scored off of, but even [if] we missed layups or they blocked shots, they were running the other way and scoring in transition because we don’t get back,” Clowney said.
“[Traore and Saraf] need to grow. They need to grow and watch it and learn from it. And I know they’re better. It’s not an excuse if they’re young. I’ve watched them play and they’re way better than 12 turnovers,” Fernández said. “How they organize the team, how vocal they are, all that, it’s important.”
While the Nets are tanking, the Heat are laser-focused on playoff seeding. Adebayo had 23 points, nine rebounds and a career-high six steals while Tyler Herro added 22.
Brooklyn was down just 52-47 with 5:15 left in the first half, but they gave up a 13-2 run to lose contact.
Andrew Wiggins capped the run with a midrange jumper that left the Nets in a 65-49 hole with 1:16 in the half.
Trailing 93-80, another 13-2 run saw the game blown open.
The Nets saw the deficit swell to 27 in the waning minutes.
“Playing as hard as we could, and we didn’t. So, got to start there,” Fernández said. “From there, you see good things happening. And we couldn’t do it consistently.”
Brooklyn moved into a tie for second in the lottery standings. They pulled within 1 ¹/₂ games of Sacramento pending the Kings’ clash with Phoenix late Tuesday, and into a tie with idle Indiana for second.
“I mean, it’s tough, honestly. Stacking losses, it’s tough to keep your good energy. But that’s what we’ve gotta do,” Claxton said. “We play [Miami] in a couple of days, and we just gotta try to find that good energy, especially coming up so we don’t get punched in the mouth.”
Dëmin, who turned 20 on Tuesday and got serenaded in Spanish by his teammates, sat a second straight game managing his plantar fascia.
Drake Powell was sent to the G-League for more playing time.