LeBron James took his first shot before he even stepped onto the court.
Speaking before the Heat’s 101-100 loss to the Nets on Friday night at Barclays Center, James refused to answer questions about his opponent, but fired a subtle dig at Kevin Garnett, marking just the latest chapter in the superstars’ long-running rivalry, which has trickled down from Boston to Brooklyn.
“I worry about our team,” said James, who refused to comment on the Nets again after the game. “I’m not answering [any] questions about the Nets. KG already told me to worry about my own team.”
James, who finished with a game-high 26 points, seven rebounds and six assists, was referencing Garnett’s comments following the Nets’ preseason win over the Heat on Oct. 17. The Nets forward said James should mind his own business after the four-time MVP questioned why Garnett and Pierce didn’t receive the same criticism current Miami guard Ray Allen did for leaving Boston.
“Tell LeBron to worry about Miami,” Garnett angrily said. “He has nothing to do with Celtics business.”
Pierce, who hit James with a hard foul during the preseason contest, played solid defense against the world’s best player Friday, displaying the defensive tenacity that has made their playoff battles so heated. James shot a hard-earned 11-of-19 from the field and committed a game-high five turnovers.
Booed nearly every time he touched the ball early on, James was especially quiet in the first quarter and took more than nine minutes to score his first points.
“We’re catching the game instead of going out and making it happen,” James said. “We’ve played in every kind of game you can imagine, but we don’t want to have that happen. That’s not something we want to do, because every game and every year is different. What you’ve done in the past doesn’t mean you can make it happen in the present.”
After the Heat trailed by 11, James finally found some aggressiveness with a pair of alley-oops late in the second quarter, awaking a strong Heat contingent. He followed with an assist to Mario Chalmers on a corner 3-pointer with 1:10 left in the half to give the Heat their first lead, 45-42, since early in the game.
It didn’t last long. After another slow start to open the second half, the Heat fell behind by 16. James came on strong in the fourth quarter, shooting 6-of-7 for 13 points in what seemed to be a futile effort, but the Nets’ 31.3 percent shooting in the quarter allowed James to pull Miami within one, 99-98, on a corner 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds left.
It wasn’t enough to keep the two-time defending champions, now 1-2, from their first two-game losing streak since Jan. 8 and Jan. 10. As James said, he needs to worry about his team — though not too much.
“It’s not doomsday right now,” James said. “We’re good, but we understand what we need to fix and correct. … We’ve just got to have a little more sense of urgency.”