The Miami Heat are off to a 10-6 start, but their record might be better if not for a few blown leads of late.
Coming off a second 21-point collapse in less than a week, the Heat will conclude a five-game trip Saturday evening with a visit to the Brooklyn Nets.
Miami will play in its league-leading 12th road game and is 6-5 so far. Two of the five losses were meltdowns of varying degrees on its current trip, which continued Friday night with a 100-98 loss to the New York Knicks.
The Heat trailed by one at halftime, scored the first 19 points of the second half and led 83-62 with 3:40 to go in the third quarter. From that point, the Heat were outscored 38-15 and were particularly ineffective in the fourth quarter by getting outscored 29-11 and shooting 3-of-21 from the field, including 1 of 8 from 3-point range.
Miami’s collapse started late in the third by allowing the lead to slip to 16 going into the fourth quarter. The Heat also held an 11-point lead but wound up getting outscored 18-5 over the final 6:05.
Miami’s Jimmy Butler scored 23 points but was 0-for-5 in the fourth quarter and missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
The collapse was similar to what unfolded in last Saturday’s 102-97 loss to the Chicago Bulls. The Heat raced to a 22-1 lead in the first 6 1/2 minutes and held a 14-point advantage with 2:13 left in the third quarter before Butler missed a potential tying 3 with 6.6 seconds left.
Butler and the Heat also hope a collapse does not occur for a second time against the Nets. On Nov. 1, the Heat took a 109-105 home loss to the Nets after leading by 16 points in the first half and 15 in the third quarter, when they were outscored 34-22.
Miami avoided a collapse against Brooklyn on Nov. 16 when it held a 17-point lead with 9:44 to go and notched a 122-115 victory.
The loss in Miami started a three-game losing streak for the Nets, who absorbed a wild 147-145 overtime defeat in Atlanta on Wednesday night. The loss to the Hawks occurred three days after a 121-99 rout at home by Philadelphia.
Mikal Bridges scored 45 Wednesday, equaling a career high he set Feb. 15 against Miami in Brooklyn. He scored 11 points in overtime but missed a potential game-winning fallaway jumper at the end of regulation.
Aside from hoping to see another big game from Bridges, the Nets are trying to improve their 3-point defense of late. Brooklyn allowed 18 triples Wednesday and has allowed 65 in its past four contests.
