Miami Heat Working On Playing Complete Games

The Miami Heat will take the victory.

The Heat defeated the Brooklyn Nets 115-111 Saturday at FTX Arena for their fifth straight victory. But they realize they need to do a better of closing games.

They nearly blew a 21-point, third-quarter lead before hanging on late.

“We need to do a better job, obviously, when we have the lead," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "I think we’re getting great reps of what our fourth quarter package is. Where the ball’s going and how we want to do it. These are really important experiences for us to go through. It’s not as if we’re walking out of this building saying this is exactly how we wanted it to go. We know we have to be better. The only way to really do it is to go through these experiences.”

The Nets opened the fourth quarter with an 18-1 run, but the Heat's balance was enough to hold off the rally. The Heat had seven players score in double-figures, led by Bam Adebayo's 19 points and 14 rebounds.

“We have to learn how to continue our first half into the second half," Adebayo said. "Sometimes we get relaxed and let teams get easy buckets because we are up so much. We have to cut the water off for the whole game. We have to learn how to close games. We have to make it tougher on the offense. When they are making runs, I feel like we have to learn how to manipulate the game at that point and finish the game.”

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