Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade goes up for a shot against Brooklyn Nets forward Jerry Stackhouse during the first half. (AP)
MIAMI — The Nets have improved quite a bit since they were blown out by the Heat early last month.
But they still have a long way to go if they truly want to rival the defending champions after the combination of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade led the Heat on a late surge past the Nets and to a 102-89 win last night at American Airlines Arena.
The Nets (11-5) saw their five-game losing streak snapped and squandered a chance to move to the top of the Eastern Conference standings. For much of the game, it looked like both were within their grasp, as the Nets — using effective ball movement and good shooting performance — held the lead for much of the first three quarters.
But Wade was spectacular, finishing with 34 points on 14-for-20 shooting to go along with seven assists, while James had 21 points, nine rebounds and six assists as the Heat remained undefeated at home.
The Heat finally rallied to take the lead late in the third quarter. The Nets went up 73-65 with 5:57 left in the third after Deron Williams hit a cutting Gerald Wallace for his 10th assist of the game, but jumpers from Chris Bosh, Ray Allen and Wade cut the lead to 73-71 before back-to-back steals and breakaway dunks from Wade and then James gave the Heat a 75-73 lead with 3:08 remaining in the third.
By the time the quarter ended, Miami had a 17-5 run — aided by three late missed free throws by the Nets — to take an 82-78 lead.
The combination of a 1-for-11 shooting start in the fourth and five turnovers dug the Nets into a hole they couldn’t escape from, one punctuated by a spectacular alley-oop pass from Allen to Wade for a jam that gave Miami a 90-81 lead with 5:09 remaining.
The Nets couldn’t have asked for a better start, with near-perfect play by Williams pushing them out to an early lead. Williams, who finished with 10 points and 12 assists, assisted on three of the first four baskets for the Nets, before he drove past Bosh for a neat layup and picked off an inbounds pass from James and going coast-to-coast for another layup to give the Nets a 13-4 lead.
Williams played the entire first quarter and finished with five points, five assists and no turnovers as the Nets led 24-16, even drawing James’ second foul on a charge late in the quarter.
Jerry Stackhouse continued his renaissance in the second quarter by taking his game inside the 3-point arc. The veteran swingman sunk three jumpers, including two tough turnaround shots over Mike Miller and Norris Cole, before he skied over Heat center Joel Anthony for a layup and foul that gave him nine points in the quarter.
In the last meeting between the two teams, Gerald Wallace sat out with a sprained left ankle and James cruised to an easy 20 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists in 30 minutes in a blowout Heat win. But Wallace made his presence felt against James from the get-go in the rematch, helping to keep him scoreless in the first quarter
But a Wallace miscue led to a James run. Wallace threw a ball away, leading to James getting an and-one, and the reigning MVP quickly scored seven points over the new few minutes.
The run from the Miami star was thwarted by a similar run of production from Joe Johnson. Also scoreless in the first quarter, Johnson scored seven straight points on a three and a pair of jumpers to help the Nets go into halftime leading 59-50.
tbontemps@nypost.com