The Brooklyn Nets lost to the Miami Heat at home and the record fell to 2-3 this season, as Kevin Durant's 25-point performance was not enough for Brooklyn to lose the game.
Bam Adebayo (24 points, 9 rebounds) and Miami took advantage of the rebounds on the inside. The Heat beat Brooklyn 48-34 on the inside, grabbing 17 offensive rebounds and winning 106-93. By the end of the game, Miami had 11 more shots than the Nets.
During the game, Kevin Durant (25 points, 11 rebounds) still shined on the Heat's defense despite giving the defensive task to their new PJ Tucker.
James Harden hit the free throw line eight times but still showed frustration with the referees throughout the game. As for sharpshooter Joe Harris (career 3:816), he tied and overtook Nets legend Jason Kidd (career 3:813) to become the team's all-time three-pointer leader, shooting 15 points from three-point range.
Here are the results of the players who lost on Wednesday:
Kevin Durant: B-
There's a reason Kevin Durant is the Nets' best player of all time, but if the Nets continue to struggle, his potential MVP campaign could be in jeopardy. This team doesn't have all their parts, there's no continuity and more importantly the players haven't found their best form yet.
It looks like Durant is also rushing to shoot, even though his rebounding has taken a big leap forward. Moving on, Durant has to do better in possession. His four mistakes always lead to failure.
James Harden: B-
James Harden just wasn't aggressive enough. We all know that he won't get that many more calls because of the league's new rules about foul play. We all know he can orchestrate and score points with ease for his teammates, which is why players are keen to play with Harden. For now, though, the Nets don't need him as the host. They need him to be a scorer.
Sure, Harden chose to be the promoter of this team, but that's not what they need now. By the end of the game, he should score the same or more points as Durant. If he makes those adjustments in the game, the assists will come. It will only force defenders to send him more corpses to release more teammates.
We saw his pass last season may not be what we saw, but that will be something that forces the defense to adjust.
Joe Harris: B+
Making history and being the leader in the history of the team's three-point shooting is an amazing achievement. Joe Harris only needed three three-pointers to overtake Jason Kidd on that list in a game against the Heat, so Harris made sure to hit five of those three-pointers.
Still, this tendency to protect the layups began to catch up with him. At this point, if Harris doesn't attack the basket with a faster layup and leave the defense with no time to react, he'll have to resort to floaters as he enters the paint from now on.
Harris should have no reason to miss all four of his shots without a three-pointer.
Bruce Brown: A
Bruce Brown began to get more and more lethal. The Boston native scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the city center on 2-of-3 shooting. Brown also helped Kyle Lowry maintain 3-on-8 accuracy on the field and had 3 steals.
Blake Griffin: B
Blake Griffin's outside shots were slightly apparent in this game, but he couldn't hide the truth. His shots were still broken at the start of the season and he needs to keep working hard to get back to last season.'
Griffin had limited playing time, playing 18 minutes against Miami, in part because he shot 1-of-4 from three-point range. If the veteran can improve his accuracy beyond the three-point line, not only will it give his teammates more freedom, but also head coach Steve Nash more options when it comes to arranging the lineup.
Patty Mills: C-
Patty Mills' 1-of-9 shooting sounds almost unheard of, but that's exactly what happened against the Heat. The Australian had the chance to shoot in time, but he just couldn't knock it down. Even if he didn't shoot in time, he couldn't knock it down.