NBA: Houston Rockets at Brooklyn Nets
Shaun Livingston had 17 points and 7 rebounds. Reuters

Guess which team has dominated the season series between the Brooklyn Nets and Miami Heat. No, it’s not LeBron James and the defending NBA champions but the squad with a ragtag roster of veterans including Deron Williams, Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson.

As expected the Heat have defeated all NBA teams except one, Brooklyn, which has beaten the Heat three times already this season. The rivals meet for the fourth and final time in the 2013-2014 season with both teams targeting better playoff seeding.

The Heat are No. 1 in the East with a 53-23 record just one game ahead of the struggling Indiana Pacers (53-25). The Nets (42-34) are at 5th place trying to hold on to that spot with the Washington Wizards (40-37) two and a half games back.

The Nets surprised the Heat in the early part of the season with a 101-100 win on November 1, 2013. Brooklyn delivered another win in January winning in double-overtime, 104-95 and then yet another one-point win (96-95) just this March.

Paul Pierce averages just 13.5 points per game this season but has upped to 23.5 PPG—his highest average against any team this year-- when facing the Heat.

"It's not only against LeBron, it's when you play against the best," said Pierce in the NBA official website. "This is the class of the league. This is the two-time defending champions and we're coming down the stretch. These games are big."

LeBron James scored just 19 points in the last meeting with the Nets making just 6-of-13 shots from the field. He also had 5 turnovers in that match-up.

James will need help from other healthy Heat players on Tuesday night as Dwyane Wade, Ray Allen, Greg Oden and Chris Andersen could be out of commission because of various injuries.

Watch the Nets-Heat match-up via NBA League Pass.