Heat Start Fast And Finish Off Season Sweep Of Nets, 104-98
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MIAMI (AP) — Dwyane Wade scored 28 points and added nine assists, Chris Andersen tied a career high with 18 points and set a season high with 14 rebounds, and the Miami Heat finished off a season sweep of the Brooklyn Nets with a 104-98 victory Wednesday night.
Goran Dragic added 17 points in his return to the Miami lineup. The Heat went 7-0 against New York's two teams this season — 4-0 against the Nets, 3-0 against the Knicks — and moved back into the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff race, helped by Sacramento beating Charlotte earlier Wednesday night.
The Heat were without center Hassan Whiteside, serving a one-game suspension for elbowing Boston's Kelly Olynyk on Monday.
Deron Williams and Jarrett Jack each scored 18 points for the Nets. Brook Lopez finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds, Thaddeus Young had 15 points and Joe Johnson 12.
The Nets were within six midway through the third, but Miami ended the quarter on a 13-4 run to take an 82-67 lead. Jack scored 16 points in the fourth for Brooklyn, but the Nets never got closer than five in the final moments.
Andersen was a game-time decision with an array of injuries, but with Whiteside out the Heat wouldn't have had many other options at center.
So he started — and starred.
Andersen had the first 10-point first quarter of his NBA career and Miami led by 18 in the first half before settling on a 62-51 lead at the break.
Andersen had 14 points — already a season high — by halftime, and some of the other banged-up Miami players came up big as well. Wade had 13 by halftime despite missing the shootaround earlier in the day with an illness. Dragic returned to the lineup after a two-game absence because of a lower back contusion and had 12 points at intermission.
Williams made a 3-pointer and soon added a driving layup midway through the third to cut Miami's lead to 69-63, but the Heat quickly regained control.
TIP-INS
Nets: G-F Sergey Karasev's season officially ends Thursday when he has surgery to repair a torn medial collateral ligament, a dislocated patella and multiple loose bodies in his right knee. He was hurt in Brooklyn's loss to New Orleans on Tuesday. ... Alan Anderson (bruised tailbone) didn't play. ... The Nets went 4-0 against Miami in the 2013-14 regular season and are 1-8 against the Heat since, including last year's five-game playoff ousting.
Heat: Miami made its first nine shots. ... Chris Bosh (blood clots on lung, out for season) was on the Miami bench for the second straight game, taking a seat next to assistant coach Juwan Howard. ... Miami had two turnovers in the first half, a season-low. ... Miami used its 27th starting lineup of the season. Henry Walker has now started five games — with five different lineups. ... Deng reached double-figures for the 600th time in his career.
FLYING BIRD
It was the first double-double of the season for Andersen, and the 22nd of his career. The player known as "Birdman" came into Wednesday with one double-double in his last 236 games.
JOHNSON'S STRUGGLES
Johnson shot 3 for 11, making him 19 for 56 against the Heat this season — 34 percent.
UP NEXT
Nets: At Philadelphia on Saturday night.
Heat: At Toronto on Friday night.
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