NBA

Miami preparing for the Nets’ Game 2 adjustments

MIAMI — Right after the Nets eliminated the sometimes deer-in-the-headlights Raptors in the first round of the NBA playoffs, a veteran Eastern Conference scout discussed the series with the Heat.

“Miami will get the Nets’ best shot, but the Nets are going to see something only [Paul] Pierce and [Kevin] Garnett, maybe Joe Johnson and Deron Williams, understand: How good Miami is, what the level of a LeBron James in the playoffs is and how Miami’s Big Three with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh will step up,” the scout said.

Well, the Nets saw it in Game 1. And the Nets got stomped in Game 1. Intensity, focus, mental awareness rose to a new level for Miami.

“I’m not sure if everybody understood that so, yeah, Game 1 is a great assessment of what we need to do,” Johnson said Wednesday. “Now we’ve got something we can go off.”

So while the Nets will tinker here, adjust there and promise more aggressiveness everywhere in Thursday’s Game 2, the Heat said they want to just keep doing what they did. After all, they know the Nets will be foaming at the mouth to even the series behind what James called the “championship DNA” of Pierce and Garnett.

“We come back the same way we want to play. We’re an aggressive team. We don’t shy away from a team that’s going to play a more aggressive game, too,” said James who scored a game-high 22 points in the 107-86 Game 1 rout. “We accept the challenge, go at them and then live with the results.”

One of the areas in which the Heat flattened the Nets was points in the paint: 52-28.

“I was aggressive in the paint,” James said. “I didn’t get many free throws, but I felt like I was aggressive.”

Aggressive is one word. Sensational is another. It wasn’t always like that for James.

“He’s learned how to use his strength,” Wade said of James’ post-up game. “I used to guard him in Cleveland and whenever he got in the post, he didn’t really know how to use his lower body, didn’t know how to use his strength to get you off him. Now when I guard him in practice, he’s a totally different beast. He’s learned how to use his quickness, his strength in the post.”

Isn’t that a delightful thought for opponents?

Deron Williams, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce watch as Game 1 ticks down on Tuesday.Getty Images

Miami also zapped the notion of rust from a long layoff after sweeping Charlotte.

“The rest helped us get our legs, our wind back and get a chance to go at each other in practice even harder than we would in a game,” said Chris Andersen, who expects to play after banging his knee in Game 1. “That prepared us better for a game situation.”

The Heat anticipate adjustments and said they’ll adapt accordingly.

“The biggest thing is coming into this game with the mental preparation and urgency that we brought into the first game. That’s most important, more than any adjustment,” coach Erik Spoelstra said.

“We control the energy we bring into the game and the amount of urgency we play with. We control that,” Ray Allen said. “It could be a hard-fought game and you could lose because a team beats you. But we don’t want to put ourselves in a situation where we beat ourselves because we don’t dive for loose balls or we don’t react to everything they do. That’s the urgency. If we have that, that’s half the battle.”