Paris blues follow Nets to Brooklyn

Miami’s Jimmy Butler came back from a foot injury just in time to ruin the slumping Brooklyn Nets’ homecoming from Paris on Martin Luther King Day.

Butler returned from a seven-game absence due to a sprained toe and capped a 31-point effort with two free throws that put the Heat ahead to stay in overtime as they held on for a 96-95 victory in front of 17,893 heartbroken fans at Downtown’s Barclays Center.

A Net nemesis through the years, Butler was originally thought to be ruled out for the eighth consecutive contest.
But he couldn’t resist the opportunity to burn Brooklyn (16-23) when it mattered most.

He buried 8-of-12 shots from the floor without attempting a 3-pointer. Butler also drained 15-of-16 free throws, grabbed five rebounds, handed out four assists and picked up a pair of steals in 39 minutes.

The 6-foot-7 slasher put up all but eight of his points in the second half and OT, none more important than the two shots he knocked down from the charity stripe with 11.1 ticks remaining to erase a 95-94 lead for the Nets, who have lost 13 of 16, eight of their last nine and three in a row.

“I’m just glad we won,” Butler said. “I think I did enough running and conditioning to be able to come back and play 40 (minutes). Whatever was needed, we got to do.”

Butler drove to the hole against Dennis Smith Jr., with time winding down and the crowd on its feet.

He was fouled, but Nets coach Jacque Vaughn debated whether to challenge the play before opting to save his last time out in case he didn’t get a reversal.

“I got a chance to look at (the replay) real quickly. … I didn’t think they would overturn it,” said Vaughn, who was hoping for a turnaround after Brooklyn got torched, 111-102, by Cleveland in the NBA’s 2024 Paris Game last Thursday.

Mikal Bridges scored 26…