Brooklyn Nets vs. Miami Heat 01-30-17
Time: Monday, January 30, 2017, 7:30 PM ET
Venue: AmericanAirlines Arena | Miami, FL
TV: YES Network, Fox Sports Go
Projected Starters:
Brooklyn:
Spencer Dinwiddie, Randy Foye, Bojan Bogdanovic, Trevor Booker, Brook Lopez
Miami:
Goran Dragic, Dion Waiters, Rodney McGruder, Luke Babbitt, Hassan Whiteside
Absences:
Brooklyn:
Miami:
Tyler Johnson, Josh Richardson
The Brooklyn Nets are on a five game losing streak after their 20 point blowout loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday. Brooklyn will now travel to South Beach in Miami to take on the Miami Heat for the second time in four games.
The Nets lost to the Heat at home last week 109-106 in embarrassing fashion. Brooklyn was up by 18 points at the end of the third quarter and broke down completely on both sides of the ball en route to the loss.
This time around, Brooklyn will need to do just about everything exactly the same up until the fourth quarter. Give Brook Lopez the ball as he has been feeling his shot a bit of late. Last week against the Heat, Lopez hit six three-pointers in the first half alone and ended with 33 total points.
Brooklyn will also need to contain Dion Waiters. Waiters was relatively quite the first three quarters until he helped score a bunch of points for the Heat to get them the victory.
Brooklyn is going to need to utilize the man they just gave a two-year contract to; Quincy Acy. Acy is an energy guy who has not been allowed to properly channel his energy into the right parts of the game. If Acy had been inserted near the end of that last matchup when Brooklyn struggled on both sides, maybe he helps lead Brooklyn to a basket to help keep the Heat at bay.
Coach Atkinson will need to better utilize his lineup this time around. There were fair criticisms of his lineup at the end of that game such as both Kilpatrick and Acy being on the bench and Spencer Dinwiddie shooting the most important shot of the game.
This is most certainly a winnable game despite Brooklyn only having two road wins. On top of that, Miami is never an easy place to play. Brooklyn can win this and they need to as they currently sit at 1-14 in the month of January.