Jimmy Butler scored 36 points to help the Miami Heat recover from a slow start and beat the Brooklyn Nets 122-115 on Thursday, extending their NBA winning streak to seven games.
The Heat, with Tyler Herro still sidelined by injury, missed 10 of their first 11 shots, but the Nets couldn’t build a lead of more than six points in the first quarter.
At halftime, the Heat led 60-52 and Butler scored 18 in the third quarter as Miami pushed its lead to double digits, never trailing in the second half.
Butler connected on 12 of 19 shots from the field and added five rebounds with three assists and three blocked shots.
Duncan Robinson scored 26 points for Miami and Bam Adebayo scored 20.
Mikal Bridges and Lonnie Walker IV scored 23 points each for the Nets, whose Nov. 1 win over last year’s Eastern Conference champions pushed the Heat to 1-4.
Miami has not lost a game since and climbed to third place in the East, 1.5 games behind leader Boston.
In Thursday’s only other game, the short-handed Golden State Warriors hosted the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Warriors, still without an injured Stephen Curry, were playing their first game since Draymond Green was suspended for five games for grabbing Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert around the neck during a loss to the Timberwolves on Tuesday.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters before the game that Green, who was ejected after grabbing Gobert around the neck and dragging him across the court, “definitely went too far.”
Kerr said he had no objection to Green reacting to Gobert’s contact with Golden State’s Klay Thompson — after Thompson clashed with Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels — but he said Green crossed a line.
“He held on for six, seven seconds. It was a terrible visual for the league, for Draymond, for everyone,” Kerr said. “Draymond was wrong, he knows it, it’s a bad image. The five games are deserved. We’re moving forward.”
