Nets 96, Heat 95: Paul Pierce scored 22 of his 29 points in the second half to lead visiting Brooklyn to its third win of the season over Miami.

Mirza Teletovic added 17 points off the bench - his first double-digit effort in a month - and Shaun Livingston totaled 13 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals as the Nets rolled off their seventh win in eight games while remaining three games back of Toronto atop the Atlantic Division. Andray Blatche contributed 11 points and Deron Williams dished out a game-high eight assists to go with six points.

Chris Bosh led the Heat with 24 points and seven rebounds and Dwyane Wade turned in a 22-point performance for Miami, which has lost four of five. LeBron James finished with 19 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals for the Heat, who were beaten on the glass 37-33 and committed 17 turnovers.

Pierce erupted for 17 points in the third - his best quarter of the season - but Brooklyn couldn't pull away, taking a 73-71 lead into the fourth. Bosh converted a three-point play to pull the Heat within 96-95 with 30.6 seconds remaining but, after Williams missed a step back jumper to ice the game with 8.5 seconds to go, Bosh's inbound attempt to James in the lane was knocked away by Livingston and the Nets preserved the victory.

Miami established a seven-point advantage with 4:01 remaining in the first quarter when James and Mario Chalmers answered a 3-pointer from Marcus Thornton with back-to-back layups. The Nets used a 16-4 spurt, capped by a 3-pointer from Teletovic, to take a 29-24 advantage early in the second stanza and led by as many as eight before the Heat scored the final eight points of the half and the teams hit the break knotted at 42.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Miami had beaten the Nets 13 times in a row before the current three-game skid. ... Brooklyn F Kevin Garnett (back) missed his seventh straight game and F Andrei Kirilenko (ankle) sat out his second in a row. ... Bosh (15,003 career points) became the 128th player in NBA history to reach the 15,000-point mark.