Cavs: Three takeaways from thrilling comeback win over Heat
By Corey Casey
The Cleveland Cavaliers were able to come back from a 19-point fourth quarter deficit and stun the Miami Heat on Monday in what was the win of the year thus far in this 2019-20 season for the Wine and Gold.
Through three quarters, Monday’s game for the Cleveland Cavaliers against the Miami Heat was a blowout in the latter’s favor. It looked very similar to the game in Miami on Saturday, where Cleveland was dominated 124-105.
The Heat were also running the Cavs out of Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Monday this time, and the Cavs didn’t have any answers on defense, as the Heat had 99 points through three quarters.
With the Cavaliers going into the fourth quarter down by 19 points, Cleveland head coach J.B. Bickerstaff went with a strange lineup to change things up. To start the fourth, the Cavs sent out a lineup with Darius Garland, Kevin Porter Jr., Larry Nance Jr. actually at the 3 position, to go with Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson.
With this lineup, they were able to get stops and begin to chip away at the Heat lead (and Miami at one point in the game led by 22 points, by the way). With a team in a rebuild like the Cavs, it’s easy to just throw in the towel in that sort of situation to begin the closing period.
The Cavaliers didn’t, though, and in the fourth quarter and overtime, they outscored Miami 45-20, as noted by ESPN, and came back in thrilling fashion, ultimately winning 125-119.
With those reasons alone, this has to be the win of the year. The win against the Denver Nuggets last month was a signature win this season, but you can argue the Nuggets were coming off a long road trip as well.
In this scenario, it was against a team that just beat the breaks off Cleveland a couple days ago, and have on three other occasions. Of course, Miami did not have the likes of Jimmy Butler (personal reasons) and were without Tyler Herro (right ankle soreness), but again, this was quite a victory.
Plus, it looked very similar to the last game on Saturday through three quarters and for the Cavs to stay composed and ultimately come back and win the game makes this the win of the year to me.
A team needs wins like these in a rebuild for signs of growth. Rebuilds are typically tough and long, because youth leads to inconsistencies, but this type of win was really impressive, given the circumstances.
With that being said, here are three takeaways from the Cavs’ best win of the 2019-20 season so far over Miami, beginning with the first.