Cavs News: South Beach split, CLE poised for playoffs, birthday wishes

On Friday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers were set to face the Miami Heat for the second straight time. Cleveland had the second game of a mini series with the Heat then, and were looking to get a win once again after a hard-fought win on Wednesday.

It was mostly a tight contest, and despite the Cavs seemingly pulling away in the third quarter, Miami closed the quarter on a mini run because of Tyler Herro’s shot-making. The Cavs were up by seven going into the fourth quarter, and were up by six a couple of minutes in, but from there, the Heat had been gaining momentum by the middle of the period.

The Cavaliers were down by seven with just over four minutes remaining, and would hit some big shots down the stretch to give themselves a chance.

Unfortunately, though, Jimmy Butler, who had 33 points in the game, proved to be too much to handle in crunch time, with his rim pressure and foul drawing. Tyler Herro was big in sparking Miami’s offense as well, and he finished with 25 points and hit five deep balls in the Heat’s 119-115 win.

It wasn’t necessarily the worst outcome, objectively for the Cavaliers. It did hurt that the team lost when Donovan Mitchell had 42 points and hit eight threes, Caris LeVert in a spot start hit four triples, and Ricky Rubio had eight assists off the bench.

But in a game where the Cavs didn’t have Darius Garland, who missed the game with a quad injury after being questionable heading into it, the team did a nice job offensively still, and they can keep building off a nice chunk of outings. Hopefully Garland can get healthier in time here, and the same goes for Jarrett Allen, who missed the last few minutes of the game after being hit in the eye in a bad luck play accidentally by Bam Adebayo on a rebound attempt.

For now, there was no update on Allen’s status for his right eye. It is reason for concern, of course, given his impact to the team.

Friday’s loss wasn’t the worst one, as we noted, anyhow, and the hot New York Knicks, behind the Cavs at No. 5 in the Eastern Conference, had last lost to the Sacramento Kings.

More Cavs news

The Cavaliers weren’t able to get the job done on Friday night in their second matchup with the Heat in a three-day span, but Cleveland is a group that’s taken another step forward this season.

The Cavs are set to make their postseason return after a five-year drought, and as KJG’s John Suchan detailed in a piece on Friday, there’s plenty of reason to believe in what this group is doing. A core of Garland, Mitchell, Mobley and Allen is a heck of a quartet to build around, and as Suchan mentioned, Cleveland is still playing well in the closing stretch of the regular season, as opposed to last season, when the Cavs faltered late. Hopefully, they don’t have detrimental injury news to come here.

Regarding other Cavs news, Friday marked the birthdays of both J.B. Bickerstaff (now 44) and Austin Carr (now 75) two individuals of whom have their presences felt in sizeable ways with the Cavaliers organization. The team gave nice shoutouts to both via Twitter.

Bickerstaff is the teams’ current head coach, having taken over in that role after the John Beilein fiasco ended abruptly in the 2019-20 season. Bickerstaff has helped the Cavaliers establish their ever-improving culture in recent seasons, and he deserves plenty of the credit for Cleveland’s return to relevance in the past two seasons.

There’s still question marks about Bickerstaff, admittedly, and he’s mostly unproven in the playoffs, but all things considered, he’s done quality work in getting this Cavs team where they are now, in the East’s top four.

As for the other birthday boy from Friday, what more needs to be said about Mr. Cavalier himself? Carr was a big-time scorer for the Cavs, with 16.2 points per game in nine seasons with the team, and he’s fourth in team history in total points.

Carr was the clubs’ first No. 1 overall draft pick in 1971, and with what he did as a player in the early days of the team, his No. 34 jersey is rightfully in the rafters at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Knee and foot injuries hampered some of his time with the Cavs, however, Carr still had a very productive career as a scorer.

Carr has also been a fixture for quite some time on Cavaliers telecasts, having been one of the staple play-by-play announcers for the team since 2006-07. His fun-loving personality has always given Cavs games quite a spark when he’s been on the call, whether it was with the late Fred McLeod, or since with John Michael/occasionally with fellow Cavs legend Brad Daugherty, too.

Happy belated birthday, Coach J.B. and AC!

NBA news

Joel Embiid had yet another masterful performance in the Philadelphia 76ers’ win over the Portland Trail Blazers last night. Embiid led the way for Philly, posting another MVP-level outing with 39 points, to go with seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks. To get the job done, he ultimately hit one of the best game-winners of the season, too, with 1.1 seconds left on this fadeaway.

Embiid could seemingly have a chance at the MVP this go-round, but Nikola Jokic could very well be in the driver’s seat to win his third straight MVP. The Denver Nuggets lost on Friday to the San Antonio Spurs, but they remain in first in the Western Conference, and Jokic has been every bit as impressive. He did still have 37 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists on Friday, and the Nuggets are 25-1 this season when he records a triple-double, for what it’s worth.

That Embiid game-winner was exceptional, though. Props to him.

Next up: Cleveland will next face the Charlotte Hornets in a second mini series, of sorts, on Sunday and Tuesday night in the Queen City.