In the Miami Heat’s “Big Three” era, the list of those who have consistently outperformed Miami’s All-Star trio is small.

But Jason Kidd’s name is at the top.

Brooklyn Nets_Miami Heat

Since LeBron James and Chris Bosh took their talents to South Beach the Heat have been nearly unstoppable, with three consecutive NBA Finals appearances and two NBA Championships to show for it.

But Coach Kidd seems to have Miami’s number, whether he’s on the floor or coaching on the sidelines.

Jason was an integral part of the 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks squad that has proven the only club capable of stopping Miami in the playoffs when they defeated them to win the championship in 2011 (Dallas also won both regular season games against the Heat that year). Last season, his final year as a NBA player, J-Kidd guided the New York Knicks to a 3-1 regular season record against the Heat.

This year, his first as a coach, he did one better, leading his Brooklyn Nets to a four-game season sweep of Miami, making them the first team to sweep a four-game set from the Heat since James, Bosh and Wade joined forces.

That distinction was solidified on Tuesday night in Miami as the Nets defeated the Heat 88-87 thanks to a highlight-reel, game-saving block of James by Brooklyn rookie Mason Plumlee at the buzzer.

Afterward, Jason humbly downplayed the accomplishment.

“That’s just basketball,” he said. “You have the best player in the world going against a rookie. We got lucky.”

But make no mistake, the Brooklyn Nets earned their fourth victory of the season against the defending champs.

As has become custom in their meetings this year, the two teams locked in another hard fought defensive battle Tuesday night. The Nets stood up to the Heat in a packed American Airlines Arena and matched them blow for blow, making all the right plays to secure a victory.

Riding a two-game win streak into Miami, Brooklyn got out to a hot start. The two teams went back and forth in the opening minutes of the quarter, but the Nets took a measure of control in the closing minutes of the first.

Brooklyn Nets_Miami Heat

After a free throw by James tied the score at seven five-and-a-half minutes in, Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson hit consecutive jumpers to give the Nets a four-point lead. After a stoppage in play gave both teams a moment to catch their breath, Marcus Thornton buried a trey that made the score 14-7 in favor of Brooklyn with just under five to go in the frame.

James responded with a layup, but Plumlee came right back with a dunk and so it went for the next few minutes, the two fiercely competitive teams trading baskets.

But Brooklyn was only content to do so for so long, and after Norris Cole cut the Nets lead down to five with two minutes left in the quarter, Deron Williams and Mirza Teletovic hit back-to-back threes as BK closed the quarter on an 8-1 run to end the opening frame with a 26-14 lead.

The quarter was an excellent representative of what the Nets are capable of on the defensive end, as they held Miami’s high-powered offense to 38.5 percent shooting and outrebounded them 12-6.

As the bench groups for both teams played out the start of the second, the Nets maintained the advantage though it fluctuated from 10 to five points and back. However, Brooklyn could only hold back the Heat for so long and in the final minutes of the quarter, Miami showed why they own the best record in the Eastern Conference and are the favorite to three-peat as World Champions.

After an Alan Anderson bucket gave the Nets a nine-point lead with exactly six minutes left in the half, Miami followed with a 8-0 run, culminating in an old-fashioned three-point-play by Chris Bosh that cut the Brooklyn advantage to just one, 35-34.

Showing the poise and guile of their coach, the Nets were unrattled by Miami’s run and fought back. Johnson made an easy layup and Paul Pierce converted a three-point-play of his own to stretch the lead back to six with 2:52 left in the half.

But the half ended in a series of luck for the Heat and misfortune for the Nets as Miami reeled off five straight points to cut the Brooklyn lead back to one, 44-43, at the break. In an odd quirk, both teams shot exactly 50 percent from the field in the half (Brooklyn 17-of-34, Miami 15-of-30), but the Nets had a slight edge in rebounding, with 18 boards to the Heat’s 17.

0409_jk_mia2Whatever Coach Kidd said to his team at halftime worked, as the Nets opened up the second half with three straight buckets and three straight stops on the defensive end. Pierce kicked it off with a driving jumper and Williams followed with steal that led to a step-back jumper from Pierce. On the other end, Pierce blocked a layup attempt by Mario Chalmers, which led to another Nets bucket, on a turnaround jumper from Joe Johnson to put Brooklyn ahead 50-43.

But Miami once again clawed back as James, Bosh and Toney Douglas kicked the Heat offense into high gear. Douglas canned a three five minutes into the third to cut the Nets lead in half from six to three, Bosh followed with a bucket to bring Miami’s deficit back down to one and Douglas gave them the lead with another three just after the halfway mark of the third.

The Nets pushed back and briefly retook the lead but a pair of baskets from James in the final two minutes of the third put the Heat up 65-62 entering the fourth.

The final 12 minutes of action was suspenseful from start to finish as neither team managed to gain a clear advantage over the other. In fact, the final nine minutes of the game featured two ties and seven lead changes.

Coach Kidd opted to rest Williams, Johnson, and Plumlee to start the quarter, but once Rashard Lewis gave Miami a three-point lead with five minutes remaining in the contest, Jason knew he had to get his starters back in the game.

Though down 80-77 with 4:18 remaining in the contest, Brooklyn found its second wind in the closing minutes. After Johnson and Bosh traded buckets, Williams got the ball inside to Plumlee for a dunk to cut the Nets deficit to one and Thornton followed by giving them the lead when he stole the ball from Lewis and finished on the other end.

James answered with a dunk that put Miami back in front by one, but after a string of misses by both teams, Thornton broke the slump with a trey to put Brooklyn up 84-82. The Nets defense got a big stop on the ensuing Heat possession and Johnson followed with a floater to put BK ahead by four.

Brooklyn Nets_Miami Heat

Miami Coach Erik Spoelstra immediately called a timeout and it paid off as the Heat setup a play for James, who not only turned it into a driving layup, but also drew a foul on Pierce on his way in. When he sank the resulting free throw, Brooklyn’s lead was back down to one, 86-85 with 55.5 seconds to go.

Brooklyn answered right back with a Williams-assisted lay-in from Plumlee. But the subsequent Heat possession ended similarly when Bosh slammed the ball home to make it 88-87 with 34 seconds remaining. The Nets dribbled their next possession down to the end of the shot clock, but Johnson misfired on a three and Ray Allen collected the rebound, giving the home squad a chance to win with 10 ticks left on the clock.

Spolestra put the ball in the hands of his star player and James drove to the rim for a potential game-winning dunk. But the rookie Plumlee stood strong and came up with a huge block to seal the one-point Nets victory.

“It was just a play at the rim,” Plumlee said of the block. “He was coming at me. My initial thought was just foul him and make him earn it from the free throw line. But I just got a piece of the ball and it was even better.”

When the Nets assembled their star-studded roster this offseason, Plumlee, the team’s lone draft pick didn’t get much attention. But after center Brook Lopez went down for the season, the rookie stepped in and has continued to grow, something Pierce attributes to his desire to learn from the veterans around him.

“He’s maturing, and the good thing about him: he listens,” Pierce said of Plumlee’s development. “He has an open ear to all the veterans on this team, and it shows. He’s coachable. He gets his work in, and he’s improving every night, and that’s what we need from him.”

The one-point victory marked Brooklyn’s third in four games against the Heat this season to be decided by that smallest of margins. The other meeting nearly was as well, but instead went into double overtime, where the Nets pulled away to win by nine. After the game, Miami’s coach Spoelstra tipped his cap to Coach Kidd’s squad.

“They’re a good team,” he said. “They’re one of the hotter teams since All-Star break. Every single one of these games, however you want to slice it, however you get to that point, there are plays to be made in the fourth quarter. And for whatever reason, they’ve made more plays.”

With the win, Brooklyn extended its winning streak to three games and moved within two games of Toronto for first place in the Atlantic Division.

NEXT UP

The Nets (43-34) wrap up their two-day stay in the Sunshine State on Wednesday night when they head up and over to Orlando to take on the Magic (22-55).

The two squads have split the season series so far, with the home team nabbing each game. The Magic downed Brooklyn 107-86 in Jason’s official head coaching debut on November 3rd in Orlando, but the Nets got a measure of revenge at Barclays Center in January with a 101-90 victory. The teams will meet again at both venues in the next five days as the Magic will be at Barclays Center on Sunday.

But first they’ll face off at the Amway Center in Orlando where tip-off is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday night. The game can be viewed locally on WWOR My TV 9 or via NBA League Pass.

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