Miami Heat will face Brooklyn Nets in the fourth game of the second round series at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn. Miami are heading into game with a 2-1 lead but Brooklyn will be looking to continue their winning momentum and even the series at home.
Brooklyn ended Miami's eight-game playoff winning streak but the defending champions would be hoping to put their postseason campaign on track and close the series as early as possible.
The Heat made a number of mistakes on both sides of the court and looked overdependent on LeBron James. James scored 16 points in the first quarter but only converted one basket in the second, and the Nets capitalised on it to narrow the lead in the series.
"The defeat was complete," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "It was both sides of the basketball. It was like trying to plug in holes in a leaking dam. There were so many things that were not in our favour really on both ends of the court."
After winning the third game, Paul Pierce called the Heat a juggernaut but added that the Nets are not afraid of them and will try to square the series in Game 4.
"Why should it be a fear factor?" James said. "It's just basketball. We're not trying to win a war here, it's just basketball. That's all it is. We're all grown men, who cares about who's fearing who?"
James said the Heat believe in performing on the court and are concentrating on rectifying the mistakes they made in the last game.
"We've never been a team that talks. We don't get into that, and we've never been a bulletin board team. We just want to play the game the right way and we give ourselves a good chance to win if we play our type of basketball and last night we didn't do that," he said.
The Nets' Deron Williams is confident that they can match the performance level of Miami to pull off an upset again, if they can strengthen their defense.
"We just had a little success against them during the regular season. We played them well and we feel like we match up well with them," Williams said. "And if we're on top of our game, we're playing defense the way we're capable of playing, like we did the last game, we put ourselves in a good position to win."
Where to Watch Live:
The game is scheduled for an 8:00 pm ET (5:30 am IST, 12:00 am GMT) start, with live coverage on TNT in the US and Sony Six and Sony Six HD in India. The game can be watched via live streaming option HERE. The game can be live streamed by international viewers, including India, HERE.
