The Nets spent Wednesday night at Chase Center doing just about everything that usually wins games and still walked out with another loss.

Brooklyn forced a season-high 26 turnovers, set a season high with 17 steals and got a massive lift from its bench. None of it was enough. The Nets fell to the Golden State Warriors 109-106, dropped to 17-56 and lost their ninth straight despite an incredibly active defensive performance. The loss also pushed Brooklyn into second place in the NBA draft lottery standings, per Tankathon, one game behind the Indiana Pacers for the worst record in the league.

Ziaire Williams led the Nets with 19 points and a career-high six steals, continuing what’s been a tear lately. Jalen Wilson scored 15 points; Malachi Smith had 12 in the first game of his second 10-day contract and Chaney Johnson added 11 before fouling out with 55 seconds left. Brooklyn’s bench outscored Golden State’s 51-18, but possessions didn’t go the Nets’ way late.

Gui Santos carried the Warriors with 31 points on 11-for-16 shooting. Golden State played without Stephen Curry for the 22nd straight game. Brooklyn was missing Michael Porter Jr., Noah Clowney, Nolan Traoré, Egor Dëmin, Day’Ron Sharpe and Danny Wolf.

The game had a strange feel from the opening tip. Golden State scored efficiently, shooting 52.9% in the first quarter, but couldn’t hold onto the ball. Brooklyn turned 10 Warriors turnovers into eight extra points in the first, which is how the Nets carried a 30-25 lead into the second quarter even while the Warriors were making shots. Williams and Josh Minott had two steals apiece, and Williams, back in his home state of California, set the early tone by living at the line and scoring nine first-quarter points to lead all scorers.

As the Warriors kept giving it away, Brooklyn’s lead grew. The Nets went up 13 with 5:11 left in the half after Johnson knocked down his first 3-pointer of the night. Golden State chipped away at the line and Brandon Podziemski’s 7-footer cut it to four with 54.4 seconds left, but Minott answered with his second 3 of the half. After Kristaps Porzingis split a pair at the stripe, Smith raced coast to coast, finished at the rim and beat the buzzer, sending Brooklyn into halftime up 58-50.

The Nets shot 52.6% and made seven 3-pointers in the first half. They also forced 15 turnovers while committing nine. They were also getting crushed on the glass, 22-12, but they had built an eight-point cushion anyway.

Then things got tight.

With 8:04 left in the third, Podziemski found Gary Payton II for a transition lob that cut Brooklyn’s lead to four, and Jordi Fernández burned his first timeout of the half. The Nets re-established control with back-to-back 3s from Drake Powell, but the third quarter still turned into a shootout where one matchup mattered more than the turnovers. Santos poured in 15 points in the period and Golden State kept finding him. Brooklyn narrowly won the quarter 28-27, and the Warriors still turned it over nine more times, which the Nets converted into 13 points. That was enough for Brooklyn to take an 86-77 lead into the fourth.

Then Golden State erased it almost instantly. A heavy dose of Podziemski buckets and free throws made it a two-point game with 9:57 left. Payton laid it in with 8:10 remaining to tie it, forcing another Fernández timeout.

The game turned into a possession-by-possession test, and Smith kept bailing Brooklyn out when it needed a shot. He drilled a huge 3 at the 4:08 mark to break a 97-97 tie, then hit an impossible one-legged 20-footer at 3:15 to put the Nets up 102-100. Then it was Ben Saraf’s moment, throwing down a left-handed slam over Draymond Green with 46 seconds left to tie it at 106.

And then it ended poorly for Brooklyn. Jalen Wilson fouled De’Anthony Melton with 24.5 seconds left, and Melton split a pair. Saraf missed a go-ahead layup. Green hit two free throws to make it a three-point game. The Nets never got a tying attempt because Minott threw an errant full-court pass for a turnover.

Williams didn’t play in the final frame.

Brooklyn closes its road trip Friday against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.

En route to the locker room following Minnesota’s dramatic overtime win over Houston, at least one Timberwolves player reportedly could be heard saying “That (stuff) didn’t work, Scott Foster.”

Foster was the crew chief of the officiating crew for a Wolves-Rockets tilt that featured its share of officiating controversy re: calls that were and were not made.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said his players “were certainly frustrated,” adding the overtime affair “should’ve ended at regulation.”

He said Julius Randle “clearly” was fouled on his gather during his move to the bucket in the closing seconds of the knotted contest. Finch noted Minnesota attempted 63 shots in the paint, yet received only 10 free-throw attempts to Houston’s 25.

The Rockets, meanwhile, received key whistles in the final five seconds of both regulation and overtime that afforded them the opportunity to tie the game at the free-throw line. However, Durant missed the first attempt of a trip to the stripe with three seconds to play in the extra session with the Rockets trailing by two.

Finch said he’s “never seen” a call like the flagrant whistled on Randle for running through a screener with three minutes to play in regulation.

“They said he sought him out to run him over,” Finch said. “I’ve never seen a flagrant like that. He goes through a screen, they call a foul, fine. That’s clearly a foul. Play on. But a flagrant? I don’t know.”

The call opened the door for a four-point Rockets possession that helped Houston lower its deficit from nine to five.

“Randle was deemed to have run through the screen with force making no attempt to avoid the contact, which was deemed unnecessary,” Foster said in a postgame interview with a pool reporter.

In overtime, Minnesota challenged an offensive foul call against Reid in which Alperen Sengun appeared to still be moving laterally when Reid connected with him, with Reid’s foot also landing on that of the Rockets’ center.

Yet the call stood on the floor, which didn’t surprise Finch – “that one was close … I didn’t think we were going to win it,” he said. But immediately after the replay ruling, the ESPN broadcast appears to show Reid simply saying “he was moving” in regards to Sengun, which induced a quick technical foul call from Foster, which resulted in an ejection.

Foster said Reid “made a statement that questioned the integrity of the crew.”

It wasn’t Foster’s first controversial encounter with the Timberwolves this season. The referee also ejected Anthony Edwards in overtime of Minnesota’s Christmas night loss to Denver.

Yet Finch and the Wolves players were proud of how any gripes with the whistle didn’t affect the team’s approach on the floor. They continued to attack the rack on offense while playing a physical brand of defense.

“Just try to believe in the basketball gods,” Wolves center Rudy Gobert said. “Just keep trying to compete, play winning basketball and control what you can control.”

“Just not worry about the refs, just going to play,” Jaden McDaniels said. “You see, we weren’t worried about them in overtime and came back and won.”

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PHILADELPHIA — In the waning days of this Chicago Bulls season, Patrick Williams has begun to fade out of focus.

The forward is hardly playing. When he makes it onto court, he often flashes a brief, promising display of the same talent that lured the Bulls to select him with the No. 4 draft pick nearly six years ago — a catch-and-shoot 3-pointer, a sudden lurch toward the rim for an offensive rebound. Then, just as quickly, Williams dissolves into the background. Easy to miss. Hard to explain. A question that the Bulls seem incapable of answering.

The trade deadline was supposed to offer a change. Or, at the least, an opportunity. The Bulls traded away seven of their most important players, clearing the runway for the remaining young core to earn significant playing time. But even in that environment, Williams can’t win.

Since the All-Star break, Williams has spent 240.8 total minutes on the court. Only five players have logged fewer minutes in that span: two-way players Yuki Kawamura and Lachlan Olbrich, and injured teammates Jaden Ivey, Jalen Smith and Anfernee Simons. Williams tallied five blocks and 25 rebounds in that span. And new addition Leonard Miller — a second-year forward who barely cracked the rotation in Minnesota — has nearly doubled his playing time.

How does the forward handle his plummet down the team’s list of priorities?

“I just try to learn from all of it,” Williams told the Tribune. “That’s where I’m at.”

Williams couldn’t offer a clear-cut reason for his lack of playing time. The forward said he hasn’t talked with the coaching staff or the front office about his role reduction. He’s trying to learn from each game, make the most of the minutes he receives and absorb the feedback given by the coaching staff.

But coach Billy Donovan had a simple explanation: nothing has changed.

In his sixth season, Williams is still struggling with the same weaknesses that plagued the first years of his career. The forward is the longest-tenured player on the Bulls roster. He was the first player drafted under Donovan, the first project to which the coach fully committed himself in Chicago. And six years later, Donovan is still prodding and cajoling the forward to crash the boards and control his dribble and contribute physically to the game.

“It bothers me because there are things I see in him that I want to see him do more consistently,” Donovan said. “I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed. … But when someone shows signs of being able to do something, you feel like you want to try to get him to do it more consistently. He’s just got to take ownership of those minutes and just try to make them as valuable as possible.”

More often than not, Donovan and his staff find themselves mulling over the same questions: What do we need to do to motivate Williams to play this way more consistently? What are we missing? What does he need?

Those questions have not changed since his rookie season. They’ve grown more flustered, more confounding. Donovan doesn’t fully understand why Williams doesn’t pursue offensive rebounds at a higher rate. He can’t wrap his head around the forward’s lack of finishing ability as a dunker. He doesn’t know why this player — big, strong, smart, dedicated — can’t get this thing to click after years of trying.

Internally, the Bulls coaching staff has reached a point of bafflement with the forward. To those who work with Williams, none of this makes sense. As a one-and-done who mostly came off the bench at Florida State, it’s not as if the forward was never a surefire guarantee as a top-5 pick. Still, Williams always had the makings to meet a baseline of physicality and finishing that he’s simply never reached in Chicago.

Stardom is more nuanced than height and weight and wingspan, but Williams clearly has the physical gifts and general profile of a solid NBA player. His teammates often marvel at his strength both in the weight room and in team drills. He has a yawning reach, deft hands and light feet. So why has that never translated into consistency — of any kind — on the court?

This is the worst season of Williams’ career. He is averaging the fewest points (6.8) and rebounds (2.8) of his six years in the league. He logs less than one offensive board per game. His 2-point shooting percentage has dropped below 40%. His assist-to-turnover ratio is nearly 1-to-1.

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As a result, Williams’ career trajectory has stalled out to a standstill. There are still three years left on the forward’s five-year, $90 million deal. The Bulls did not seriously pursue trade options for Williams at the deadline due to a lack of interest on the market, per a source. Perhaps that will change once he nears the end of his contract. But in the meantime, Williams is treading water — and retreading the same talking points that have defined the last three years of his development.

“I kind of look at it as — whenever I do get out there, what can I learn from it?” Williams said. “To be completely honest, we’re not competing for a championship this year. So when I’m out there, I’m trying to learn different things. I’m trying to work on things in a game. It might look a little bit crazy, but that’s kind of what the development part of it is for me.”

Williams still talks like a young player at the start of his career. When he thinks about this season in the big picture, the forward points to foundational aspects of his game that he hopes to improve — playing at a higher pace, filling in the gaps in an undersized frontcourt.

“I hope that in Year 10, Year 12, Year 15, these lessons will start to come back around again,” Williams said. “I’ll say, ‘OK, I learned that early on when I was in Chicago.’”

There’s some sense to this outlook. After all, Williams is only 24 years old. Life is long.

But NBA careers are not. And as he fails to fight for minutes even on a floundering Bulls roster, Williams is only adding to the stagnation of his career — and the team as a whole.

CLEVELAND – Considering the torment of the five-game losing streak the Miami Heat carried into the night – from the buzzer-beating loss in Houston, the Luka Doncic 60 for the Lakers to the fourth-quarter blitz by the Hornets – there likely was going to be no easy way out for Erik Spoelstra’s team.

So what had stood as a 21-point first-half lead Wednesday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers was gone in the second half.

Still, this time the Heat found a way, pushing back in the fourth quarter to a 120-103 victory at Rocket Area.

So one step forward in the win column and two in the standings, the victory moving the Heat to No. 8 in the Eastern Conference amid the scramble in the play-in/playoff race.

With Spoelstra shaking up his starting lineup, the Heat found salvation through 19 points from Norman Powell and 18 from Tyler Herro , as well as 17 points and 10 rebounds from Bam Adebayo and 13 points and 11 rebounds from Kel’el Ware.

In all, eight players scored in double figures for the Heat.

Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday night’s game:

1. Game flow: The Heat led 28-19 after the first period and 63-46 at halftime, after moving to their 21-point lead in the second period.

The Heat season-long third-period issues then fully resurfaced, with the Cavaliers, playing on the second night of the back-to-back set against a Heat team that was idle Tuesday, tying it 83-83 going into the fourth.

The Cavaliers then moved to a two-point lead early in the final period before the Heat pushed their way back to a nine-point advantage midway through the fourth.

The Heat nursed the lead from there, as Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell fouled out with 3:39 left in the game, after scoring 28.

2. Side by side: Playing apart for most of the season due to injury absences, and then more recently by Spoelstra’s choosing, Powell and Herro were reunited in the starting lineup, with positive early results.

Powell was up to 13 points at halftime, with Herro with 11 at that stage, each with three first-half 3-pointers.

But then the chemistry was lost, each with just two points in the third period, the Heat’s big men taking over late to put it away.

Powell closed 7 of 12 from the field, Herro 6 of 11.

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3. Quality Ware: Limited in his minutes while offering limited contributions in recent games, Ware had a solid eight-minute initial stint, with six points and seven rebounds, the Heat outscoring the Cavaliers by 15 in those minutes.

Ware was part of an uptempo second unit that included Pelle Larsson, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Kasparas Jakucionis, with Herro cycled back into that unit.

Ware then did not return in the second half until 1.7 seconds remained in the third period, but made his presence felt in the fourth.

4. Uneven night: Among the reasons Ware’s second-half minutes were limited was a 12-point third period by Adebayo after a two-point first half.

Against the quality defense of Evan Mobley Jr., Adebayo took his game to the perimeter, through three quarters 1 of 8 on 3-pointers while 4 of 9 otherwise from the field.

Adebayo also added seven assists to his stat line.

5. And another one: The teams meet again on the Cavaliers’ court on Friday night to close out the four-game season series that also included consecutive matchups earlier this season at Kaseya Center, where the teams split.

This is the fifth of the six times this season the Heat face the same opponent in consecutive games (including one run of three in a row against the Chicago Bulls).

The Heat’s final such set is April 7 and April 9 in Toronto.

CLEVELAND – Observations and other notes of interest from Wednesday night’s 120-103 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers:

– Desperate measure for a desperate time?

– Perhaps not.

– But the five-game losing streak the Heat carried into the night seemingly called for change.

– So Heat coach Erik Spoelstra changed.

– Norman Powell back as a starter.

– Where most All-Stars prefer to be.

– And Pelle Larsson to the bench.

– Through no fault of his own.

– It was the first time Larsson did not start when available since Jan. 13.

– The starting lineup was rounded out by Bam Adebayo, Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Herro and Davion Mitchell.

– With the Heat 3-3 entering the night with that lineup.

– So this now the approach going forward?

– Spoelstra, of course, not one to tip his hand.

– Spoelstra, in fact, was asked pregame about whether he is closer to formulating a stable rotation for the postseason.

– “We’re forging ahead,” he said. “I mean, I’m not planning my playoff rotations right now. No, we have work to do. Obviously, we’re trying to move up and that’s keeping us all occupied. But we feel encouraged that we’re finally healthy and it’s coming at a good time. We need it.”

– That left unsaid whether there even will be a set rotation or more matching up with the opposition.

– “Number one. I’m not telling you. All right?” Spoelstra said with a grin. “But we’ll have our rotation out there. We feel very good about having all of our guys available, and that’s a big strength of our roster, is our depth and our versatility throughout the rotation. What we need is consistency of play.”

– The Cavaliers, without Dean Wade, Jarrett Allen and Max Strus, among others, opened with a lineup of Evan Mobley Jr., Keon Ellis, Sam Merrill, James Harden and Donovan Mitchell.

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– It was Harden’s 1,000th career regular-season start, one of nine active players at that figure.

– With Allen out, it made it easier for the Heat to start smaller.

– Larsson and Jaime Jaquez Jr. entered together first off the Heat bench.

– Kel’el Ware followed.

– With Kaspras Jakucionis making it nine deep.

– Again leaving previous rotation components Dru Smith and Simone Fontecchio out of the mix.

– With again not a sniff of rotation time for Nikola Jovic.

– Spoelstra’s catchphrase going in again was “competitive will.”

– Noting, “Defensively, it hasn’t been to our standards. We’ve played some good teams. They’ve raised their level, and we weren’t able to do that.”

– With faith, he said, enduring.

– “We believe in our defense,” he continued, “We think that fuels so much more, even for us offensively. If we get some more stops, it’ll all fall in line.”

– Spoelstra believes the messaging is resonating, even if the results are not always there.

– “The thing about our group is they’re echoing the message to each other, even starting before I even have to meet with the team,” he said. “We’ve fought extremely hard to have a top-five defense. We’ve grinded through games and take a lot of pride on that side of the floor. But it’s an explosive offensive league. You let up on your mentality at all, the offensive talent that you face can get to you.”

– Spoelstra was asked at the morning shootaround of Myron Gardner as an energizer.

– “Energy, effort is a talent in this league,” Spoelstra said. “Because not everybody does it, certainly not to the extent that he does. And what he can provide sometimes is a bolt of inspiration, Through that relentless energy.”

– Spoelstra added, “And he’s getting better with the details, too. Defensively, so he’s not fouling as much with his aggressiveness. And offensively, he’s really improved. He’s very good as an open shooter. And he can play within our principles on drives. And you feel pretty confident he’ll make the right play.”