Nets take first win with Big 3, almost lead-free



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Brooklyn Nets win their first win of the Kevin Durant-James Harden-Kyrie Irving era. They are probably hoping the next one will be a little more comfortable.

The Nets finished in the winning column on Saturday for the first time with all three stars on the floor, beating a shorthanded Miami Heat 128-124 team. For a while, the game seemed as one-sided as some had anticipated, with the Brooklyn Big 3 all contributing, with the Nets taking an 18-point lead in the second quarter and leading in double digits in the fourth quarter.

The Heat, however, recovered and nearly completed the comeback. The team got within a point of the Nets three different times, but couldn’t even score. It was always a valiant effort from a team lacking Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, Avery Bradley and Meyers Leonard.

In their absence, Heat center Bam Adebayo led all scorers with 41 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds. The last Heat player to score so much? Dwyane Wade:

Another quiet night for James Harden

Durant and Irving were usual themselves, scoring 31 and 28 points respectively. Harden finished with just 12 points, however, his third straight game with 21 points or less. This period coincides with Irving’s return to the team after his sabbatical.

Harden was just 2 of 8 off the pitch and didn’t really make a basket until the last minute of the game (his first basket, midway through the fourth quarter, was scored as a goalie). Instead of scoring like in his time with the Rockets, Harden was again deferential, totaling 11 assists.

Harden has now recorded double-digit assists in his five games with the Nets. One of the Brooklyn Big 3’s was generally expected to become more accommodating for the offense to work, and so far that’s the recent arrival.

The win gives the Nets a rebound after dropping back-to-back games to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they clearly still have a long way to go, from home defense to not doing what the NBA has explicitly instructed its players not to do. :

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