MIAMI _ The best part of this one? There is another one Saturday night.
Hopefully for the Miami Heat, not another one of these.
Because Friday night's 111-87 loss to the Brooklyn Nets at AmericanAirlines Arena exposed just about everything an opponent can expose:
Teammates unable to feed off a hot start from Hassan Whiteside.
The Heat unable to create offense when the 3-point game and Wayne Ellington were off.
Continued shooting struggles for Goran Dragic, who ended 3 of 12, pulled for good midway through the third period.
A bench depleted by injury and beaten into submission by a non-descript Brooklyn group of second-teamers.
That 120-95 home loss to the Indiana Pacers on Nov. 19? This was worse, the deficit reaching 38, worst of the season.
With an opportunity to move three games above .500 for the first time since the end of the 2015-16 season, the Heat instead dropped to a 8-9 at home, five of those losses by 15 or more.
The good news? The Heat get to head back out on the road for Saturday's game against the Orlando Magic at the Amway Center.
Because the Heat can't get this one out of their system fast enough.
The rare NBA game decided in the first half? This was it, when Brooklyn moved to a 59-39 lead, with the Heat at 31 percent from the field and 1 of 11 on 3-pointers over the first two periods.
The 20-point lead was the Nets' largest at an intermission this season, with the 39 points the fewest the Nets had allowed in a first half.
Entering the night, the Nets had never had more than 15-point halftime lead over the Heat in any of their previous 58 games in Miami.
It was only the second time the Nets had led by 20 or more on the road this season, having it also done so in a victory in Atlanta.
The Heat had Whiteside back in their starting lineup for the second consecutive game after his 13-game absence with a bone bruise on his left knee. They again opened big, with Kelly Olynyk at power forward, flanked by Josh Richardson, Tyler Johnson and Dragic.
The Heat remained without sidelined Dion Waiters, James Johnson and Justise Winslow, with all three to also miss Saturday's game.
The game in Orlando will be followed by a three-day New Year's break, before the start of a three-game homestand Wednesday against the Detroit Pistons.
It was the fifth time this season the Heat had trailed for 30 points or more.
And it wasn't as if Brooklyn was whole. The Nets again were lacking injured Jeremy Lin and D'Angelo Russell, instead with a starting lineup fueled by Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.
It was the second game of the four-game season series, with the Nets also to visit March 31.
The Heat won the teams' first meeting 101-89 Dec. 9 in Mexico City, in a game that counted as a Nets home game. Dragic and Tyler Johnson scored 20 points apiece for the Heat in that victory, with the Heat without Whiteside that night.
The Heat entered having won six in a row against the Nets and 11 of the previous 12 meetings, with six consecutive victories in the series at AmericanAirlines Arena.
You wouldn't have known that based on what was on display in this one.
The game concluded a four-game homestand for the Heat that ended at 2-2, also losing in blowout fashion to the New Orleans Pelicans a week earlier.
The Heat were coming off Tuesday's 107-89 victory over the Magic, with victories in seven of their previous 10.
The game was the fourth on a five-game trip for the Nets, who were coming off Wednesday's 128-113 loss in New Orleans, their seventh loss in eight games.
The Nets used a 12-0 run late in the opening period to move to a 24-20 advantage entering the second quarter, after the Heat previously had moved to a 10-point lead.
Whiteside converted all four of his shots in the period to lead the Heat with eight points in the quarter.
The Nets extended their run to 21-2 early in the second period to move to a 29-20 lead, taking off from there, taking a 95-60 lead into the fourth quarter, matching the largest lead at the end of a third period in franchise history.
