WHAT IT MEANS: Apparently, there are more Heat fans in Newark than Nets fans. LeBron James was booed fairly loudly the first several times he had the ball, but the first time he drove around a defender and went in for a high-flying slam, the cheers were five times louder than the boos had been earlier. The booing of James pretty much ceased in the second half, and the final 24 minutes were a non-competitive formality that owner Mikhail Prokhorov witnessed from the owner's box, seated with fellow Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, the owner of the English soccer team Chelsea. The Nets priced this game higher than normal games, and it failed to sell out. The crowd of 17,086 was 1,625 short of a full house.
TURNING POINT: It happened before many of the fans had even reached their seats. Carlos Arroyo gave Miami its first double-digit lead less than 5 1/2 minutes into the first quarter, and after the Nets got back within six, Zydrunas Ilgauskas' jumper with a minute left in the first period established a double-digit lead than never went away. James played only 14 first-half minutes because of foul trouble, but Miami scored with ease (shooting 67.7 percent in the first half) in going ahead by as many as 19. Nothing happened in the second half that merits mentioning.
SILVER LINING: Derrick Favors had his first career double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds, and Brook Lopez put together a solid first half with 17 of his 20 points after averaging 27 points in the Nets two previous games, victories over the Pistons and Kings. It remains to be seen if fans will vote Lopez in as the Eastern Conference's starting center for the All-Star game, but he will be deserving of consideration for those who do not cast sympathy/legacy votes for Boston's Shaquille O'Neal.
LeBRON DUCKS SATURDAY NIGHT: No, he didn't spend it in Manhattan, which would have put him at risk of being heckled by New Yorkers who were flooding the streets decked out in Halloween costumes. Instead, he spent it inside his hotel room in Short Hills, N.J., watching the Oregon-Southern Cal college football game.
WHAT'S NEXT: Prokhorov's product still has the better record (2-1 vs. New York's 1-2) of the two New York-area teams, and the Nets can stay above .500 if they manage to defeat the winless-to-date Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night to close their season-opening four-game homestand. But then things get tough: The Nets get another go-round with the Heat next Sunday in Miami after playing Orlando the previous night.