Knicks, Nets battle with Heat to avoid Play-In Tournament as race tightens

The Nets, Knicks and Miami Heat will battle over the next two-plus weeks to avoid the Play-In Tournament.

The race tightened up a bit on Thursday when Brooklyn and New York both lost winnable games.

The Nets were outscored 12-2 in the final two minutes of their 116-114 loss to Cleveland.

The Knicks lost, 111-106, in Orlando -- their third straight defeat.

It sets up an intriguing five day-stretch in the battle for the fifth seed.

Brooklyn plays at Miami on Saturday and the Knicks host the Heat on Wednesday.

New York (42-33) is a game up in the loss column on both Brooklyn (39-34) and Miami (40-34).

Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn hopes that his team can learn lessons from the late-game miscues on Thursday and regroup against the Heat.

“This group is continuing to figure out who is going to shoot the ball at the end, where that shot's gonna come from, what the formation’s gonna be,” Vaughn said. “Overall, the people who were in the game were in good spots to make things happen.”

Donovan Mitchell may have committed a violation when he rebounded his own missed free throw with 11 seconds to play. Mitchell missed a put-back opportunity and the Nets couldn’t come up with a rebound/loose ball.

Caris LeVert ended up with the ball and found Isaac Okoro open on the wing. Okoro hit an open 3-pointer to give Cleveland the win.

Mitchell may have crossed the free throw line before this free throw hit the rim -- which would have been a violation -- but Spencer Dinwiddie didn’t see that as an excuse for Brooklyn.

“We had to have a cascade of events to even (get) there,” he said. “So we’ve got to be accountable for that one.”