On Tuesday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers welcomed the Miami Heat to town. The entire game between two evenly-matched Eastern Conference teams was close throughout, but some big bucks by the Heat’s stars were the difference in a 100-97 Heat win. How did the game go down?
The Cavs were gutting the Heat midway through the first quarter. They instantly attacked the middle of Miami’s 2-3 zone, picked up quick fastbreak buckets, and forced five turnovers in just as many minutes. The defense was as tight as Fort Knox. Then, Miami flipped the game’s pace like a light switch and handed the home team its fifth loss in Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The Cavs couldn’t take the Heat.
First Takeaway: Cavaliers launching bricks from deep
Miami’s zone tempted Cleveland to take nine more triples than its average. Some of this can be attributed to Donovan Mitchell, who bricked 10 3-pointers, not having his usual burst as he overcomes his groin strain. He was settling for jumpers when he usually dusts by a rival for an unchallenged layup or acrobatic finish through traffic.
Cleveland found success on catch-and-shoot looks in the corners, making 44% of its tries in those spots. Yet, they were completely shut down at the top of the key and the wings. From there, they converted four out of 24 attempts.
Miami was able to contest against Darius Garland with the length of Jimmy Butler and Caleb Martin on multiple misses. On the others, DG was off target.
Dean Wade, in his sixth game back after missing 23 straight, was shooting blanks from behind the arc. Caris LeVert, too, missed a few wide-open looks.
Second Takeaway: Cavaliers beat on the glass
The Cavaliers were beaten on the boards by six, allowing Miami, the smaller team, to have more possessions than they should have. The hosts allowed 11 second-chance points off nine offensive rebounds. On one possession, Jarrett Allen was boxing out Bam Adebayo in the low post and lost a 50-50 ball as his man jumped higher and tapped it outside. Adebayo had four of Miami’s nine recoveries.
Even miniature Kyle Lowry snatched a couple of offensive boards. He beat Caris LeVert to a miss that resulted in a Tyler Herro left-wing triple. The next one was a lucky bounce over to Lowry on the baseline. Cleveland ran a 1-2-2 zone with Ricky Rubio as one of the low men with Evan Mobley. Rubio over-helped to box out Butler as #4 already tagged him, leaving him out of position for the snatch.
The most grievous of these errors came when Mitchell switched onto Herro, forcing a missed 3-pointer. Isaac Okoro, Spida, and Mobley failed to get their mitts on it as it rolled to the key, and Martin dived for it.
Cleveland is bigger than most teams every night. Allowing an undersized 6-foot-5 power forward like Martin to finish the game with 11 rebounds indicates the Cavs weren’t doing enough on the glass on both sides. 10 of his 11 boards were defensive, but he spent a lot of time switching to the perimeter. He also beat Wade for one in the lane and Allen for another under the hoop.
Third Takeaway: Cavaliers wouldn’t defend without fouling + not enough free throw attempts
The Cavs couldn’t stay in front of Butler. He attempted 15 of Miami’s 25 free throws, cutting the game’s flow for the home team while giving his guys a breather before transitioning to defense. Watching the Cavs repeatedly send him to the line was like watching a football team consistently give up first down. This made Cleveland’s offense work twice as hard in the half-court because the Heatles were already in a defensive stance watching the ball.
DG committed a foul against Butler, a career 32% shooter from deep, behind the 3-point line resulting in a few freebies. LeVert also fouled Herro on the left wing, sparking a four-point play.
Baited by the zone, the Cavaliers’ offense mostly attacked from the perimeter. Had they done a better job of breaking it in the middle the last three quarters, there wouldn’t be a disparity of 13 attempts. The only other breaks Cleveland got were during a timeout.
Final Words
The outfit is still nine games over .500, but with 29 matches left, it needs to finish off the last third and change of the season strong. In its last 44 outings, the Cavs are 23-21. The team directly behind them in the standings, Miami, is 26-18 over the same stretch. The Heat are also 1.5 games out of fifth place and getting healthier.
Most of Cleveland’s remaining games are on the road. Perhaps if the group goes .500 on tour the rest of the way, and locks up home court, it will have a chance to host the start of round one of the playoffs at home.