{"id":639460,"date":"2026-03-04T19:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/639460\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:37:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:37:20","slug":"nets-suffer-ninth-straight-loss-to-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/639460\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets suffer ninth straight loss to Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Losers of 15 of their last 16 on the road and a season-high nine straight overall, the Brooklyn Nets are getting harder to defend.<\/p>\n

Not on the hardwood, but during second-year coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez\u2019s postgame press conferences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know our guys are way better than this,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez insisted moments after Tuesday night\u2019s 124-98 defeat to the Miami Heat in front of 19,700 fans at the Kaseya Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that\u2019s, to me, the exciting part is, you know, believe you\u2019re better, and just fight the fight. Just go ahead and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nets (15-46) haven\u2019t done \u201cit\u201d since upending Chicago at Downtown\u2019s Barclays Center on Feb. 9.<\/p>\n

The fifth-longest losing streak of the Brooklyn era looks even uglier if you stretch it back to the start of the new year.<\/p>\n

The youngest team in the NBA has gone 5-26 in 2026, with the lone road triumph during that stretch coming on Jan. 30 in Utah.<\/p>\n

The Heat (33-29) are still holding on to eighth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They remained just one game out of the coveted sixth spot, bypassing a potential play-in tournament appearance, after making fairly quick work of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

Though they did lead briefly by a single point in the opening half, the Nets soon disintegrated before the fourth-best defense in the league.<\/p>\n

Brooklyn committed 19 turnovers, got beat on the fast break 23-13 and shot a dismal 19% (6-of-32) from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

\"MiamiThe slumping Nets can only watch as Bam Adebayo soars to the basket for two of his 23 points Tuesday night in Miami. Photo: Lynne Sladky\/AP<\/p>\n

Michael Porter Jr., the Nets\u2019 leading scorer, had difficulty getting in his comfort zone as Miami\u2019s Andrew Wiggins clamped down on the 6-foot-10 forward.<\/p>\n

Porter went 3-of-17 from the floor while pacing Brooklyn\u2019s clang-fest from long distance, going 0-for-9 on 3-balls.<\/p>\n

Without their veteran leader to turn to, the Nets had to get production out of their second unit, which played considerably better than the first.<\/p>\n

Porter was limited to a season low-tying nine points, but reserve forward Ziaire Williams put up 16, back-up center Day\u2019Ron Sharpe finished with 10 and eight boards and rookie Danny Wolf contributed 11 points off the pine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Mike and the first group to play as hard as they can,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez noted. \u201cI want to challenge them to do it because I\u2019ve seenthem doing it. on the defensive end.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that happens, I can live with whatever happens. \u2026 Then you\u2019re being selfless, you\u2019re playing for the team, you know, just good things happen. I\u2019m trying to just challenge every guy in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bam Adebayo poured in a game-high 23 points to go with nine rebounds and six steals for Miami, which is doubtlessly licking its chops as it awaits Thursday night\u2019s finale of this two-game series.<\/p>\n

Noah Clowney scored 17 points and rookie Nolan Traor\u00e9 added 14 out of Brooklyn\u2019s starting five, but the duo combined for 12 giveaways and no assists through the first three quarters as the Heat opened up a 91-76 lead entering the fourth and never looked back.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, they need to grow, they need to grow and watch it and learn from it, and I know they\u2019re better. There\u2019s no excuse that they\u2019re young,\u201d added Fern\u00e1ndez.<\/p>\n

Starting center Nic Claxton returned from a thumb injury, but didn\u2019t last long.<\/p>\n

The high-flying pivotman had four points on 2-of-7 shooting to go with five boards, three assists and two blocked shots in 28 minutes after sitting out Sunday\u2019s home loss to Cleveland.<\/p>\n

First-year guard Ben Saraf added to Brooklyn\u2019s miscues with six turnovers in 25 minutes off the bench. He also had six points and four assists.<\/p>\n

Now, Fern\u00e1ndez and his staff have less than 48 hours to tune up for the rematch, which will tip-off at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We have to) learn, watch film, get some work done (Wednesday), and then come back and be better,\u201d he said wistfully.<\/p>\n

\"NewLiberty star Breanna Stewart voiced her frustration over the ongoing CBA negotiations between the WNBA and Players\u2019 Association with a letter on Tuesday. Photo: Angelina Katsanis\/AP<\/p>\n

NOTHING BUT NET: After taking on the Heat again, the Nets will visit Eastern Conference-leading Detroit (45-15) on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. \u2026 In other local pro hoops news, the WNBA and Players\u2019 Association still haven\u2019t come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement, further jeopardizing the May 8 season opener. The league laid down a March 10 deadline for the campaign to start on time and Liberty forward Breanna Stewart and fellow PA vice president Kelsey Plum responded with a letter to union executive director Terri Jackson. \u201cWe are frustrated that we have not made more progress as we near the March 10 deadline,\u201d the three-page letter noted. \u201cAnd we believe this is a result of a breakdown in communication between you and the Executive Committee and players more broadly.\u201d The Liberty, who were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Phoenix last year after capturing their first-ever WNBA title in 2024, are still waiting to sign free agents, including Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Losers of 15 of their last 16 on the road and a season-high nine straight overall, the Brooklyn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,53053,189,26565,6,671],"class_list":{"0":"post-639460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-jt-torenli","13":"tag-miami-heat","14":"tag-national-basketball-association-nba","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116172598647266142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}