NBA

Pierce leads Nets over defending champs Heat

Nets fans had been waiting for this game ever since draft night, when general manager Billy King made the biggest move of the offseason by bringing Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and their championship pedigrees to Brooklyn.

And on opening night at Barclays Center, the new-look Nets didn’t disappoint.

The Nets went toe-to-toe with the two-time defending champion Heat on Friday night and emerged with a 101-100 victory in front of a raucous sellout crowd of 17,752, snapping a 13-game franchise losing streak against the Heat in a game that felt much closer to playoff intensity than a regular-season contest.

“Whenever you’re trying to establish something against the champs, you got to expect it to be like a playoff-type atmosphere,” said Pierce, who finished with 19 points — tying Joe Johnson for the team-high — to go along with five rebounds and six assists. “[Garnett] really talked about that coming into the game, expect it to be like the playoffs, and don’t expect anything to go our way.

“[The Heat are] the team to beat. It’s a good thing we got a taste of this kind of atmosphere this early in the season to kind of see where we’re at.

“Miami, whenever they come to town, they’re a measuring stick for everybody.”

Paul Pierce makes a key block on LeBron James late in the fourth quarter.Charles Wenzelberg

It was Pierce, the player who has probably had more one-on-one matchups with LeBron James than anyone in the NBA over the past decade, who rose up and made play after play down the stretch for the Nets, who bounced back nicely from their season-opening loss in Cleveland.

When James drove to the basket with a little more than five minutes remaining and the Heat trailing by 10, Pierce emphatically blocked the reigning MVP’s attempted layup, yelling afterward and sending the hometown fans into a frenzy. That play came just a few moments after Pierce, who found himself squared off against his former Celtics teammate, Ray Allen, on the perimeter, rose up and drilled an 18-foot jumper in Allen’s face to put the Nets up by 12 with 6:13 remaining.

Then, after the Heat had cut what once was a 16-point second half lead to two with 7.9 seconds remaining, Allen missed the second of two free throws and Pierce found a way to secure the rebound. After being fouled, Pierce calmly knocked down both free throws to give the Nets a four-point lead they never relinquished.

“The first thing I told all these guys on the team was it’s going to be a pleasure to watch this guy every night,” said Garnett, who finished with six points and seven rebounds. “I’ve had the pleasure of having a front-row view [for years].

“I’ve always called [him] Picasso. He’s like a beautiful painting. I get to watch him every night and it’s more than a pleasure to be not only his friend, but his teammate, [and] to see him do his thing and have games like this. He carried us down the stretch, and when we needed a bucket he found a way to get it.”

The game went back-and-forth throughout the first half, with the Nets jumping to an early lead before the Heat went on a run late in the second quarter to take a 45-42 advantage on a Mario Chalmers corner 3-pointer with just over a minute left in the half.

But after the two teams entered the half tied at 47, the Nets finally broke the game open with a 16-3 run midway through the third to take a 71-55 lead, which they never lost — despite allowing Miami back into the game by not making a field goal over the final 2:47 after Johnson’s 3-pointer off a Deron Williams assist gave the home team a 96-84 lead.

“We had a pretty solid lead and let them chip away, and they had a chance to come back,” said Williams, who finished with eight points, four rebounds and eight assists in just over 27 minutes, as he continues to build up his minutes as part of his recovery from a sprained right ankle. “We have to do a better job, and that’ll come as we play together and get more comfortable.”

The Nets are still a work in progress, considering Friday night was the first time since the start of the preseason they had everyone on the roster healthy and available to play.

But for one night, at least, the Nets showed the championship aspirations they have after the roster renovation they went through this summer are legitimate ones.