The Nets’ best defensive performance of the year couldn’t help.
Neither could rare big nights from Mikal Bridges and Cam Thomas cooking together, as Brooklyn suffered a 96-95 overtime loss to Miami before a sellout crowd of 17,893 at Barclays Center on Monday night.
The game wasn’t decided until Bridges (team-high 26 points to go along with nine rebounds and six assists) saw his 10-foot baseline fadeaway against three defenders fall just short with 1.1 seconds left in overtime.
Thomas had 23 points off the bench, and Brooklyn had to stomach blowing a 16-point second-half lead on its home floor, listening to chants of “Lets go Heat!”
The Nets (16-23) have dropped 14 of their past 18, and now they’re heading off on a three-game West Coast road trip that includes tilts at Portland, and in Los Angeles against the Clippers and Lakers.
Jimmy Butler returned from a seven-game absence with a game-high 31 points for the Heat, now 24-16.
Brooklyn’s defense went from smothering to sieve-like after intermission.
The Nets allowed just 26.2 percent shooting — and 0-for-12 from behind the 3-point arc — in building a 14-point halftime lead. The Nets surrendered 70.6 percent — and 5-for-7 from deep — in getting outscored 37-24 in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter couldn’t settle the game — Bridges’ free throws with 4.4 seconds left in regulation knotting it at 88 — so they needed overtime.
That’s where the Nets blew another lead.
Thomas put the Nets on the board first, and after a Bam Adebayo miss, Royce O’Neale’s right-wing 3 gave them a five-point lead.
A Bridges block on Caleb Martin led to Brooklyn forcing a shot clock violation.
Tyler Herro (29 points) hit a 3-pointer with 1:29 left, but Bridges answered with a tough floater in the lane, getting a bounce for a 95-91 lead.
Herro hit another 3-pointer to pull the Heat within one.
And after Brooklyn got whistled for offensive basket interference, Miami had a golden opportunity.
Claxton forced Herro to give the ball up, but Butler earned a whistle against Dennis Smith Jr., hitting both free throws with 11 seconds left.
He gave the Heat the lead and Bridges’ miss ensured they kept it.
