Brooklyn Nets vs. Miami Heat preview: Vince Carter gets his jersey retired!

Cold outside, and colder on the court. The Brooklyn Nets took on a reeling Phoenix Suns team on Wednesday night. However, the home team couldn’t heat it up and lost by 24 points. It extended the losing streak to four and home losing streak to six.

The opponent tonight is still within playoff range, but it won’t be easy to get there. The Miami Heat have been dealing with a lot, but Erik Spoelstra always has his guys ready to compete. They didn’t help themselves on Thursday night as they got dominated by the Milwaukee Bucks and lost by 29 points. They have some cushion for ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings ahead of the Chicago Bulls, but that can always slip away if they’re not careful.

Where to follow the game

YES Network on TV. WFAN on radio. Tip after 6:00 p.m. ET.

Injuries

No Bojan Bogdanovic, Cam Thomas, Maxwell Lewis, Ziaire Williams, De’Anthony Melton, or Trendon Watford. Cam Johnson missed Wednesday’s game with a right ankle sprain. He’ll miss at least the next week. D’Angelo Russell missed the game due to left hamstring tightness injury management. He is listed as questionable due to personal reasons. Ben Simmons has been dealing with an illness. He’s questionable as well.

Could CamJ have played his last game in Brooklyn? The Nets have five games before the trade deadline and he may not play any of them.

Dru Smith and Josh Richardson are out. Somebody else is missing, which we’ll get to momentarily.

The game

Miami won the first meeting. These teams wrap up the season series in February.

So, there’s a lot going on. Jimmy Butler wants his money. The initial plan was to ball out this season and cash out in the summer. The plan hasn’t been working well, and he wants out of Miami. The Heat in turn have upped the passive aggressiveness in words and in deeds. And now…

Long breakups tend to the most difficult and troublesome. There’s a lot to think and feel about Butler, and Katie Heindl of Basketball Feelings walks us through it:

To go back to the chyrons, because I can’t quite get over them, it strikes me not as an aberration that Butler might have, or may still, do or say something disruptive to the Heat, to Riley’s streamlined club, to the tidy bounds of basketball — the latter is a fantasy anyway. It actually strikes me as a feat. To have your public presence be given the weight of a weather event or existential crisis; to be heralded.

Personalities are a dime a dozen. In our rapid-fire age of creators and clipping the most mundane moments of our days as worth chronicling, personalities shift with the algorithm. Presence, on the other hand, has weight. A slow build, usually a lifetime in the making, with no way to affirm or vet one other than through gut reaction. Your eyes catch, cannot be pulled away; the hairs on your arms go up. You feel magnetized, heedless to the pull. You can’t fit that on a chyron.

True indeed. At the mothership, Jayson Buford has more:

Before he was suspended, Butler was lazy, taking threes where he would have driven the paint, jogging back when he would have ran back. Even teammates like Bam Adebayo questioned whether his heart was it. Looking at Butler now is like looking at an outsider, distrustful of the government above him. Spoelstra and Riley are now calming the fuss in an attempt to keep the conversation about what the team is doing on the court. Is it possible that, despite all of his arrogance, Butler is in the same predicament — feuding with his bosses who are tired of his immaturity — as the rest of the players in the league?

It appears so.

In the meantime, Tyler Herro is the lead option for Miami. He’s been dealing with a bit of a groin injury, but he’s available tonight. He’s taken on a bigger role on offense this season, and it’s been paying off. He’s at career highs in points (24 per game) and shooting (47.4 percent from the field and 40.4% from 3-point range). He’s a candidate to be named an All Star reserve and he would be a welcome addition to the festivities in San Francisco this year.

The Heat always find gold where you least expect it, and they may have done it again. Kel’el Ware became a permanent fixture in the rotation on December 29, and he’s been a godsend in the front court. Since the 29th, Ware has averaged around 13 points and seven rebounds a night on 59/41/72 shooting splits. So far, he’s shown himself to be a pretty good pick and roll partner.

At just 20 years old, Miami might have found a solid player that can help them hang on to a playoff spot.

Ware will do battle with Nic Claxton on the inside. We’re waiting for an impactful game from Claxton as he needs one for himself and to remind Nets fans of how good he is.

Offense is so hard to come by for the Nets. The effort is certainly there, but the results haven’t been. In January, the Nets are 29th in offensive rating at just 103.1. The only team worse? The injury ravaged Orlando Magic. With Johnson out again, it’ll be even harder for the Nets to make things shake. If Russell is back, it’ll give them somebody who might be able to carry the team and go off in a major way.

Player to watch: Bam Adebayo

He’s the franchise, and as he goes, so goes Miami. It’s been a tough year as his numbers are down across the board and off the court drama has made the work a lot more challenging for the Heat. Even still, Bam is a very good all around center as he checks a lot of different boxes. He’s a very good passer, terrific defender, and someone who can go and get it on offense. If the Heat want to escape the play in range, they’re gonna need Adebayo to take it up a few notches.

More Noah Clowney will do the Nets good. This Nets season is about development, and the more minutes he gets, the more he gets to find his role in the NBA. He’s made at least two three pointers in five out of his last six games. Some of the misses are incredibly loud, but you have to stick with it and keep firing when you’re open. For young players, you learn by doing and with CJ out, Clowney will get another start at the four position.

The man of the hour

Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images

Tonight, Vince Carter will have his number 15 retired by the Nets. In 4.5 seasons with the team, Carter averaged 23.6 points per game and made the All-Star Game three times. Carter was a success on the court, in the community, at the box office, and helped provide the last bit of playoff success the New Jersey Nets had. Carter was a great Net and has continued to be a fan favorite so many years removed from his playing days. It’s going to be a festive atmosphere tonight and Carter will get the love and adoration from Nets fans that he deserves.

From the Vault

You know where we going

We got one more stop to make on this ride

And this one’s for Lucas!

More reading: Hot Hot Hoops and SB Nation NBA