Cavaliers use down overmatched Heat in 121-100 rout in series
CLEVELAND– The Oklahoma City Thunder set the standard for No. 1 seeds previously in the day, when in their Western Conference playoff opener against the Memphis Grizzlies they went up by 56 points and won by 51.
4 hours later on, versus that background, the Miami Heat took the court versus the East No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers, a group second only to the Thunder in the NBA this season.
The makings for something similarly terrible certainly was in place, with the Cavaliers closing routine season 27 games ahead of the Heat.
So all things bring relative, a fairly decent effort by Erik Spoelstra’s group in the opening game of the best-of-seven series, a 121-100 loss at Rocket Arena that had the Heat within six late in the third duration.
“We’ e been seeing ’em play all season,” Heat center Bam Adebayo stated of what his group experienced Sunday. “You understand what it is.”
The Cavaliers’ superior depth of skill showed to be too much for a Heat group coming off a grueling play-in triumph 2 nights previously against the Atlanta Hawks.
“Certainly they’re primary in the east for a reason,” Heat guard Tyler Herro stated.
Cleveland got 30 points from Donovan Mitchell, 28 from Ty Jerome and 27 from Darius Garland, along with 12 points and 11 rebounds from center Jarrett Allen.
From the Heat, there were 24 points from Adebayo, 21 from Herro and 18 from Davion Mitchell.
Game 2 is Wednesday night back on the Cavaliers’ court, with the winner of this series to play the winner of the series in between the Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks that Indiana leads 1-0.
“We’ll need to be better,” Spoelstra stated.
Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:
1. Closing time: The Cavaliers led 31-24 at the end of the very first period and transferred to a 16-point lead in the 2nd quarter before the Heat closed within 62-54 at the half.
The Heat then fell behind by 13 in the third quarter, closed within 6 later in the duration, before going into the 4th down 87-79.
From there, the Heat closed within 7 before Cleveland pushed back to a 17-point lead midway through the final duration, effectively ending it.
The Cavaliers’ biggest leads of the game came at the end of the game, in what proved to be an evening of attrition for the Heat.
In the end, the Heat lamented their 14 turnovers and the 14 offending rebounds allowed.
“The extra possessions got them some additional life,” Spoelstra stated. “We’ll need to be much better in those areas, for sure.”
2. His part: Herro was up to 17 points by the intermission, despite drawing nearly the entire focus of the Cavaliers defense, scoring 12 in the second period to keep the Heat afloat.
Most of Herro’s offense came off his own shot production.
Herro was coming off 38- and 30-point performances in the play-in round, versus Chicago and Atlanta, respectively.
However the toll of all frequently being required to play 1-on-5 on the perimeter took its toll, with Herro trailing off considerably in the 2nd half. He closed 7 of 18 from the field.
“I got to continue to be aggressive, discover my spots,” Herro said. “Undoubtedly they’re denying me, selecting me up complete court.”
With the requirement for his offense, Herro ended up with simply one help.
“It depends on us to find out how to get in the circulation, get the ball where it requires to go,” Spoelstra stated, “and that’s what we’ll deal with the next couple of days.”
3. His part, too: Adebayo extended his career-best postseason streak of 20-point games to 11.
It was the 61st postseason game for Adebayo in double figures, connecting him for 3rd put on that Heat all-time postseason list with Chris Bosh and Jimmy Butler. The franchise leader is Dwyane Wade (166 ), followed by LeBron James (85 ).
He closed one rebound shot of his 32nd profession playoff double-double, at 10 of 22 from the field, with nine rebounds.
Like his coach and colleagues, he lamented the Heat’s turnovers.
“For us I feel like it’s the 14 turnovers,” he said of the secret to the game. “In the playoffs, it resembles having 20.”
4. Not his time: When the Heat drafted 7-foot Kel’el Ware last June at No. 15 out of Indiana, the thought was he eventually could offer the kind of length needed in matches such as this versus the Cavaliers Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.
Rather, Ware closed the very first half with neither a rebound nor a point.
In addition, Ware, who turned 21 Sunday, very much showed his youth in protecting the paint against the Cavaliers’ assaulting game.
That once again typically had Spoelstra choosing 6-foot-5 Haywood Highsmith in his power rotation.
“It was simply getting this game under my belt,” Ware said, “seeing what the physicality was like.”
Ware’s first rebound did not come till 1:50 into the 2nd half, off a missed out on Adebayo complimentary toss. His first points came on a putback dunk with 7:01 to play in the 3rd duration.
He closed with two points and 3 rebounds.
“This is the life of a young player, you’re being fed through a firehouse,” Spoelstra said. “He’s important to what we do. He’ll get to work.”
5. Time to marinade: There now will be just one game in the series over the next five days, Wednesday night’s 7:30 p.m. Video game 2 back at Rocket Arena, before Video game 3 at 1 p.m. Saturday in the very first of 2 at Kaseya Center.
If absolutely nothing else, it will provide the Heat time to regroup after Friday night’s overtime play-in victory in Atlanta, Saturday’s optional practice at Cleveland State and after that Sunday’s game less than 45 hours after advancing to this series.
“We’ll simply have to clean some things up and get ready for game two,” Herro said.
The Cavaliers, by contrast, had been off a week prior to Game 1.
Originally Released: April 20, 2025 at 9:26 PM EDT