Thanks to Brook Lopez and Wayne Ellington, the Brooklyn Nets picked up a much deserved victory against the Miami Heat on Monday night.
Brooklyn Nets 111 (9-22)
Miami Heat 105 (18-12)
AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, FL
By Chip Murphy
This is not the article I thought I would be writing. In fact, I was already mentally preparing a Brooklyn Nets loss piece at half time. They were down 14 points and shooting When the Nets reeled off a 10-0 run at the beginning of the third quarter I was shocked. What was even more shocking was that head coach Lionel Hollins made a significant in-game adjustment. Most shocking, was that it actually worked. Here’s some expert analysis from the coach.
Coach Hollins: “Wayne was huge, when he gets hot like that, we keep scoring.” #Nets pic.twitter.com/ltuXWUijmp
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) December 29, 2015
The Nets starting backcourt of Jarrett Jack and Bojan Bogdanovic began the second half on the bench, after their team played the first two quarters with barely a hint of a pulse on offense. They were replaced by Shane Larkin and Wayne Ellington, two career bench players who both initiated the spark that Brooklyn has been missing all season.
Larkin dished out 7 assists tonight but the star of the show was Ellington. He carried the Nets to victory, making 7 3-pointers and scoring a total of 26 points. On a night when Brook Lopez shot 10 for 24, Thaddeus Young scored just 11 points, and Joe Johnson only 4, the Nets needed every single one of those threes as they struggled down the stretch to pull off the 6-point win.
The Miami Heat continued their wildly inconsistent play as they came into tonight with the third best record in the Eastern Conference, and riding the momentum of a great road win against their in-state rival Orlando Magic. It’s tough to get a read on anyone on the Heat team that isn’t Dwyane Wade or Chris Bosh. The team is to reliant on their two superstars and they have not yet meshed with new point guard Goran Dragic.
If they are losing to the Nets then they have a long way to go. Tonight’s result says a lot more about Miami than it does about Brooklyn.
.@MiamiHEAT pic.twitter.com/fOFVnavvgP
— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) December 29, 2015
