Heat at Nets
The Miami Heat finally snapped their losing streak and picked up a victory on Tuesday, but it turned out to be a case of too little, too late. The Heat will celebrate Dwyane Wade's final NBA game when they visit the Brooklyn Nets for the season finale on Wednesday.
Miami's fate was decided before it finished off the Philadelphia 76ers 122-99 on Tuesday when the Detroit Pistons, who own the tiebreaker over the Heat, knocked off Memphis to maintain a one-game edge for the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference. The focus became Wade at that point, and the future Hall of Famer thrilled the crowd in his final home game with 14 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter. The Nets punched their ticket to the postseason over the weekend and are just waiting to see if they will land in the No. 6 or No. 7 spot in the East. "Obviously, we're excited to be in the playoffs, but by no means are we satisfied with just making it to the playoffs," Brooklyn small forward Joe Harris told Newsday. "We feel like regardless of who we play against, Toronto or Philadelphia, we've had competitive battles with each team this entire season. We still want to make some noise in the playoffs and make it competitive."
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS Sun (Miami), WWOR (Brooklyn)
ABOUT THE HEAT (39-42): Wade, who played 14 1/2 of his 16 seasons in Miami and was part of three NBA championship teams with the franchise, got the start on Tuesday and played 35 minutes while receiving constant cheers from the home crowd and tributes during timeouts. Wade, 37, was hoping for one more trip to the playoffs but will instead finish out in Brooklyn along with longtime teammate Udonis Haslem, who came off the bench to play with Wade in the fourth quarter on Tuesday. Miami dropped out of the top eight in the East with losses in four straight and fell at Minnesota and Toronto last weekend despite Wade scoring over 20 in each contest.
ABOUT THE NETS (41-40): Brooklyn is still deciding how it will approach its season finale, trying to balance keeping the team sharp against giving players some extra rest. "I do think our goal is we owe it to our fans, we owe it to our team, to go into that first game in the best condition as possible, whatever that means," Nets coach Kenny Atkinson told reporters. "Whether that's keeping our rhythm and playing guys a lot of minutes, whether it's reducing them a little, I'm not sure what that looks like exactly right now." One player Atkinson would like to keep sharp is All-Star point guard D'Angelo Russell, who scored at least 20 points in each of the last five games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Nets SF DeMarre Carroll (leg) is not expected to play in the finale.
2. Heat PG Goran Dragic is 6-of-22 from the floor over the last two games.
3. Miami took two of the first three meetings, including a 120-107 victory at Brooklyn on Nov. 14.