Mikal Bridges 15 straight points, 45 overall to give Brooklyn win over Heat, 116-105

The Miami Heat paid a visit to the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center Wednesday night. It was the first meeting between the two squads since Kevin Durant’s MCL Sprain in South Beach, which turned out to be the last of his Nets tenure.

While Mikal Bridges isn’t going to make Nets fans forget KD, he created his own memories by scoring a career high 45, taking over a close game in the fourth and making it his alone.

Final score: Brooklyn Nets 126, Miami 105, the Nets first win since Durant and Kyrie Irving were traded and all the new Nets were cleared to play.

The game served as an especially important matchup for Brooklyn and Miami, who entered the evening as the fifth and sixth seeds in the East, respectively, with only a game and a half of difference in the standings.

The Nets started off hot in the first quarter, led by their most newsworthy acquisition from last week’s trade deadline, Mikal Bridges. The versatile two-way forward showed out with 12 points in the first period on 5-of-6 shooting while also swatting two shots. Bridges often played an off-ball role in Phoenix to complement the ball-handling wizardry of Chris Paul and Devin Booker, but has been featured as more of a self-creator as a Net. He did so in his first stint on the floor with multiple self-created mid-range jump shots.

“My teammates kept finding me. They felt I had it going and just kept getting me the ball and set screens and let me operate and coach just drawing stuff up too,” Bridges said on his career-high showing postgame. “They gave me the confidence to go out there and just be aggressive, but man, I want to do all that and win, too. I just feel like if you do all that and lose, it’s kind of like an empty stat to me. I’m just happy we got the W and everybody played well.”

After struggling against the New York Knicks on Monday, newly-appointed backup center Ben Simmons checked in early against Miami, replacing Nic Claxton to play the final eight minutes of the first quarter. He had two strong rolls to the basket after stepping onto the floor — laying the ball in on a feed from Bridges and then finding Mikal in the corner for three — but still struggled with illegal screens and general passiveness. Despite it all, the Nets were in front by a point, 26 to 25, after a deep side-step three from Spencer Dinwiddie in the closing seconds.

The Nets maintained their advantage for most of the first half, but an 8-0 run from Miami mid-way through the second period gave the Heat their first lead. The Heat led at halftime, 56-52. Bridges led the scoring for the Nets at the break with 17 points, while Simmons out-played Claxton at the center spot, earning 11 minutes to his teammate’s 8.

The trend continued in the third quarter with more strong play from Miami, but the visiting Heat couldn’t extend their lead past six points. A strong run from Brooklyn was capped off by a Joe Harris three-pointer with 3:22 left that gave the Nets their first lead of the second half, 73-72. They entered the final 12 minutes of action with a three-point cushion after a phenomenal touchdown pass from Simmons to Bridges in the final seconds.

“That was crazy. He [Bridges] was in the zone,” Cam Johnson said. “You know, making plays and buckets on top in all different ways.

The fourth quarter began as a close affair, but a 8-0 Mikal Bridges run at the midpoint not only gave him a career-high in points, but also handed the Nets a 9-point lead, their largest advantage up to that point. Bridges ended up scoring 15 straight, the lead became ten, then twelve.

A dunk off a baseline cut with 1:41 remaining gave Bridges 45 points and the Nets a 14-point lead, acting as the dagger sending the Heat packing.

With the victory, the Nets sit at 34-24, fifth in the East standings with a nine-day layoff heading into the All-Star break.

What’s Next?

They’ll return against the Bulls in Chicago on Friday, February 24.

• Box Score: Brooklyn Nets 116, Miami Heat 105 - NBA
• Game Highlights: Brooklyn Nets 116, Miami Heat 105 (Video) - NBA