MIAMI — This was the kind of moment the Nets brought Paul Pierce to Brooklyn for.
The Nets found themselves tied with the two-time defending champion Heat with two minutes to go after Dwyane Wade made a free throw to even the score at 92, sending a sellout crowd of 19,616 to its feet inside of AmericanAirlines Arena Wednesday night, expecting the Heat to close out a victory over the resurgent Nets.
But then Pierce, like he has so many times before against this team and in this building, decided that wasn’t how the night was going to end. Instead, Pierce got the ball on the wing, pump-faked a defender into the air, drove to the rim and laid the ball into the basket from between a couple of defenders, scoring the final two of his 29 points to put the Nets ahead for good, helping them earn a 96-95 victory.
“As a veteran, playing in so many of these big games, you always try to get yourself prepared mentally, physically,” Pierce said. “You know what it’s going to take to come into one of these types of territories and get a win.
“From the time I woke up at shootaround, I was really locked in. … I understood this is going to be one of our toughest games to date.”
He was right about that, but the Nets (33-30), who beat the Heat for the third time this season, were able to come away with the win anyway. That largely was because of the throwback performance from Pierce, who has long been a thorn in the side of LeBron James and Co., and even had a hand in creating the monster the Heat have become because of the success he, Kevin Garnett and current Heat member Ray Allen had together in Boston.
Pierce, aka “The Truth,” looked like the player who often got the better of his one-on-one matchups with James back in his days in Cleveland. He scored 22 points in the second half in a game in which neither team ever led by double-digits and was entertaining, though sloppy, throughout.
Pierce scored 17 of those points in the third quarter — going 5-for-5 from the field, including 3-for-3 from 3-point range — helping the Nets cling to a 73-71 lead heading into the fourth.
“He is a big-time player,” said Dwyane Wade, who finished with 22 points. “He makes shots, and he has that slow, methodical game where you don’t know if he is going to shoot or go to the basket.
“There is bad blood there with us in the playoffs but, you can respect what he has done and continues to do in this game.”
With Pierce on the bench, the Nets’ reserves kept the game close over the first several minutes of the fourth quarter — led by Mirza Teletovic, who finished with 17 points, knocking down a pair of crucial 3s — to help keep the Nets in front. It enabled Nets coach Jason Kidd to give Pierce a vital few extra minutes of rest before inserting him back into the game with less than five minutes to go.
“[Mirza] was on fire,” Kidd said with a smile when asked why he held out Pierce in the fourth. “That’s something about those guys on the bench. They always let me know to let guys stay [in the game]. Paul said, ‘Let him go. He’s going.’ I wanted to come back with Paul a little earlier, but Mirza was knocking down shots and spreading the defense.”
Every little bit of rest helped Pierce late, as he made several big plays in the closing minutes. After Pierce’s go-ahead layup, he made a pair of crucial defensive plays — perfectly boxing out LeBron James off a Chris Bosh missed 3-pointer, then playing great defense to force a miss by Wade — to set up a Deron Williams 15-foot jumper over Mario Chalmers with 35.8 seconds left to give the Nets a 96-92 lead.
Then, after Pierce fouled Chris Bosh, who led Miami with 24 points, on a layup that turned into a three-point play to cut the Nets’ lead to 96-95 with 30 seconds left, Williams missed a jumper and Wade corralled the rebound with 3.5 seconds left.
But on the ensuing inbounds play, Bosh’s attempted pass to a cutting James, who finished with 19 points, was tipped away by Shaun Livingston, the clock ran out and the Nets, winners of three straight and seven of eight, emerged with what easily was their best win of the season and continued their remarkable renaissance in 2014.
“It feels good, man,” Pierce said of the team’s turnaround, as the win improved the Nets to 23-9 since Jan. 1. “We were written off early. It feels good for us to be able to turn this thing around.We had these visions of playing like this before the season started. Unfortunately it took longer than we expected, but I’m glad we were able to turn it around at this point in the season at the right time.”