MIAMI — When analyzing a best-of-seven series, the old adage is it doesn’t begin until a team loses on its home court. But conventional wisdom doesn’t apply when trying to find a way to beat LeBron James four times in seven games.
That’s why it’s imperative for the Nets — who hope to make this Eastern Conference semifinal against the Heat a long and competitive one — to leave Game 2 Thursday night with a victory over the two-time defending champions and even the series before heading back to Brooklyn.
But after a season full of ups-and-downs — including having to win Games 6 and 7 against the Raptors to even make it this far — the Nets aren’t shaken by an early deficit after Miami’s 107-86 victory in Game 1 Tuesday night.
“We have been tested at the beginning of the season, middle of the season, late in the season and in the first round,” Nets coach Jason Kidd said before practice Wednesday. “It is nothing new for us. But hopefully we can draw from that experience and find a way to win Game 2.”
The Nets’ common theme had much more to do with their mistakes in Game 1 than an overwhelming performance from the Heat. And, more specifically, the Nets pointed to their lapses on defense — allowing the Heat to shoot 57 percent from the field and score 52 points in the paint — as the main reason they find themselves down in the series.
“We know a lot of the things we did wrong defensively,” Deron Williams said. “We made a lot of mistakes in our defensive game plan … so of course that’s going to be the focus going forward — keeping them out of the lane and keeping them from getting so many layups, so many easy baskets, because when they do that they get a lot of confidence, and then they start hitting shots from everywhere.”
That’s certainly what happened in Game 1, as the Heat enjoyed a never-ending layup line to the rim, allowing them to make nearly as many baskets in the paint (26) as the Nets had attempts (28). That, in turn, allowed Miami to open up shots on the perimeter after the defense collapsed, and the Nets quickly found themselves in a deepening hole.
It’s not an easy task to try to keep the Heat from getting hot both in the paint and from the 3-point line, but it’s something the Nets know they need to do.
“It [requires] multiple efforts [defensively],” Shaun Livingston said. “That’s championship basketball.
“That’s what they do. If we want to win this series, that’s what we’re going to have to do.”
But though the Nets had plenty of things to clean up, they had reasons to feel optimistic. While they didn’t get into the paint nearly as often as they would have liked in Game 1, they did finish the game shooting 47 percent from the field and 41.7 percent (10-for-24) from 3-point range. And despite the lopsided final score, the Nets trailed at halftime by three and early in the third quarter by four before the Heat quickly put together a 14-2 run to blow the game open.
“We’re still confident,” Andray Blatche said. “We know what it takes to win [Thursday]. We’re going to go over some film right now, go over some schemes and figure out what we have to change and then go out tomorrow with confidence and try to get a ‘W’ to go back to Brooklyn.”