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MIAMI -- Turns out, the Miami Heat can beat the Brooklyn Nets. And rest hardly led to rust for the two-time defending NBA champions. LeBron James scored 22 points, Ray Allen added 19 and the Heat stayed perfect in this post-season by beating the Nets 107-86 on Tuesday night in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series. It was the first win for Miami in five meetings with Brooklyn this season. "Its one," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "But I liked the energy, the activity." Chris Bosh scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, Dwyane Wade finished with 14 points and Mario Chalmers had 12 for Miami, which recorded at least one regular-season win against every team except Brooklyn, losing four times by a total of 12 points. This one was a different story. A 24-9 run in the third quarter blew things open for the Heat, who hadnt played in eight days after sweeping Charlotte in the opening round. "It was great that we were able to come out the way we did after being off eight days," James said. "We got a lot of work in. We had eight days off of not playing a basketball game but Spo got us in the gym. (We) got each other in the gym. We made each other accountable throughout the layoff and it proved tonight." Deron Williams and Joe Johnson scored 17 points each for the Nets, who got only eight from Paul Pierce and no points from Kevin Garnett in 16 minutes. Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Thursday night. "This is the defending champs," Nets coach Jason Kidd said. "Its always going to be at a high level and weve got to find a way to match it." James finished 10 for 15 from the field and Allen -- who had never faced his former Boston "Big 3" compatriots Pierce and Garnett in the playoffs -- was 4 of 7 from 3-point land. "He was focused on the job at hand," James said. Miamis lead was 55-52 early in the third quarter after a 3-pointer by Williams, and every indication was that the Heat and Nets -- who played three one-point games and a double-overtime affair in the regular season -- were heading down to the wire again. Not quite. The Heat took off on the 24-9 run over a 7-minute span, with Bosh scoring the first seven points of that burst to get Miami going. Allens 3-pointer pushed the lead to 14, James and Chris Andersen (who left in the fourth with a right knee contusion) added two free throws apiece and just like that Miamis lead was up to 79-61. "Its fun when you win the game and you can at least for a night do whatever it is you do, have some dinner, chill at home and exhale a little bit," Bosh said. "When you lose, you cant sleep, your stomach hurts and its not a very good situation." For Brooklyn, the trouble came at an unexpected time. The Nets had the best third-quarter scoring differential in the East after Jan. 1, but were outscored 33-23 in that pivotal quarter in Game 1. It was a hectic news day long before Heat-Nets, with Oklahoma Citys Kevin Durant being announced as the leagues MVP, the firing of Golden State coach Mark Jackson and the NBA saying that Los Angeles Clippers president Andy Roeser would be taking an indefinite leave as part of the fallout related to the Donald Sterling scandal. James two-year reign as MVP lasted 198 games. "We have a new MVP, but when you talk about the best players in the world, hes 1A, 1B with Durant," Kidd said. Pregame lineup moves by both clubs lent more intrigue. Miami brought Shane Battier -- who played 2 minutes, total, in the first round against Charlotte -- back into the starting five, while Brooklyn reinserted Shaun Livingston into its lineup after using him off the bench late in the Toronto series. After never leading by more than seven points against Brooklyn in the regular season, the Heat led by 11 after a drive by James with 3:32 left in the first half. But the Nets closed on a 14-6 run, and Williams first beat-the-clock 3-pointer of the game sent Brooklyn into halftime down 46-43. Williams did it again in the third, but that one only got Brooklyn within 79-66. "It came down to defence tonight," Williams said. "Our defensive game plan was not executed at all." NOTES: The Heat held a pregame moment of silence for Hall of Famer Jack Ramsay, who died last week at the age of 89. ... David Beckham, who will be bringing an MLS team to Miami, sat next to the Heat bench. ... Livingston was on the court to warm up for the second half with about 10 minutes left in the intermission. Small problem: The rack of basketballs wasnt on the court yet. ... The Nets are 1-9 all-time against Miami in playoff games. ... Miami had not won consecutive Game 1s since the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the 2012 playoffs. Toronto Raptors Shirts . - Skiing far more aggressively than in her season debut a day earlier, Lindsey Vonn was in provisional 10th place after the first 45 skiers in a World Cup downhill on Saturday. Cheap Raptors Jerseys . This game was inside. Adrian Peterson was missing. The stage was set for another step toward the playoffs. https://www.cheapraptors.com/. Heather, the first Gaiter to win the award, set a Canadian Inter-university Sport record with 3,132 passing yards in eight league games, an average of 391.5 yards per game. That beat the mark of 3,047 set only one week earlier by Westerns Will Finch, a Hec Crighton finalist. Wholesale Raptors Jerseys ... maybe even more than that. Maybe all season I have to take a few blows. Raptors Jerseys China . -- In the stadium program sold at the Miami Dolphins game on Halloween, Richie Incognito was asked whos the easiest teammate to scare. GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Floridas seniors, those four guys who fell just short of the Final Four the last three years, talked about cutting down the nets after clinching the Southeastern Conferences regular-season championship. It was a brief conversation. And a unanimous decision. The top-ranked Gators chose not to break out the scissors. If they keep playing like they did against LSU on Saturday, they might end up with an even bigger celebration. Dorian Finney-Smith scored 16 points, and Florida used a season-high 13 3-pointers to overwhelm the Tigers 79-61 and extend its school-record winning streak to 21 games. "Everybody on the team didnt feel comfortable cutting them down right now because we knew we have more of a journey to go," guard Casey Prather said. Prather and Michael Frazier II added 14 points apiece for the Gators, who also won their 31st straight at home. This one was never in doubt. Florida (27-2, 16-0 SEC) scored the first eight points of the game, opened up a double-digit lead with consecutive 3-pointers from DeVon Walker and Finney-Smith and put the game away early in the second half with a flurry of points in the paint. Prather made three consecutive driving finger rolls after the break. Patric Young had a dunk and then a left-handed hook shot. And Prather followed with a dunk and another driving layup that put Florida up 62-38 with about 11 minutes remaining. About the only thing left to see was whether Florida would cut down the nets. The Gators clinched the title Thursday night with Kentuckys loss to Arkansas, and many expected they would ceremoniously celebrate in front of a sellout crowd Saturday. It was never going to happen. Prather, Young and fellow seniors Scottie Wilbekin and Will Yeguete chose not to cut down the nets. "We felt it was given to us when Kentucky lost," Wilbekin said. "I was sitting on my couch watching TV. I didnt do anything." Coach Billy Donovan wouldnt have let them do it anyway, especially not with what happened in 2007. That team, the defending national champion led by Joakim Noah and Al Horford, cut down home nets after winning the SEC title and then lost its next two gamees.dddddddddddd. "I regret that," Donovan said. Although Donovan believes his senior-laden team can handle distractions, he figures its best to stay focused on the goals within reach. "You want to be playing well this time of year," Donovan said. "When you get to this point in time of the season, you dont want to play like youre trying to protect something, when youre back on your heels, We dont want to lose being No. 1 and we dont want to lose at home and we want to keep the streak going. "Once you get into trying to avoid things and trying to prevent things from happening, I think inevitably you get tight, you get frozen and you dont play. The biggest thing for us that Ive been trying to explain for our guys is there are things out there for us to chase. What are we going to chase? What are we going to go after?" Florida looked every bit like a championship-calibre team against LSU -- and in dominant fashion. The Gators had been in a number of nail-biters in recent weeks, winning their previous seven games by 10 points or less. They either trailed or were tied at halftime in each of those. This one was the complete opposite. The Gators never trailed. They led 41-25 at halftime and didnt even have a second-half lull. "It says a lot about the team," LSU coach Johnny Jones said. "They sit there and theyve already clinched the championship and for guys to come out and play as motivated and as hard as they did tonight. ... I think when you have a senior team like they are and guys are able to make plays like that and are used to winning, some great things can happen for you." Johnny OBryant III led the Tigers (17-11, 8-8) with 18 points. Jordan Mickey added 14 points and 10 rebounds for LSU, which lost its seventh straight on the road. There was little LSU could do to stop Florida, which just got hot from the 3-point line. The Gators made 13 of 23 from behind the arc. It was just the fourth time this season that they reached double digits in 3s. "I was happy our guys shot the ball with confidence and it was good to see the ball go in the basket for those guys," Donovan said. ' ' '