BROOKLYN — The new-look Nets got their first win of the post-Kevin Durant era and Brooklyn gets to head into the NBA All-Star break with a win. The Nets picked up a gritty 116-105 win over the Miami Heat on Wednesday night at Barclays Center as Mikal Bridges hit a new career high in points with 45 and Cam Thomas added 19.
Bridges recorded the third 30-plus point game of his career and his second as a member of the Nets. He also had tallied 20-plus points in eight of his last nine games, including two of his three games as a Net.
“My teammates kept finding me. They felt I had it going and just kept getting me the ball and set screens and let me operate and coach just drawing stuff up too,” Bridges said about his 45-point night. “They gave me the confidence to go out there and just be aggressive, but man, I want to do all that and win, too. I just feel like if you do all that and lose, it’s kind of like an empty stat to me. I’m just happy we got the W and everybody played well.”
The win was the Nets’ second in their last six games and it prevented them from going into the break on a three-game skid. Thursday marked the third game that Brooklyn had all four of its trade deadline acquisitions on the floor together, while head coach Jacque Vaughn continued to experiment with his lineup.
The Nets have had a much different look since they dealt Durant and Kyrie Irving last week and scoring has been much more spread out. Bridges and Thomas had big nights, but Brooklyn had every player except Seth Curry score at least a basket.
“Yeah that’s how we want to play,” Nic Claxton said. “I think we can play even faster just a lot of miscellaneous actions that will be tough for teams to guard. And I think you’ll see different guys stepping up every single night. It might not be the same dose of the same player.”
Cam Johnson finished the night with 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting, while Spencer Dinwiddie shot 3-of-4 for nine points. Joe Harris had…
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