Cleveland Cavaliers can’t pass playoff-like test in 100-97 loss to Miami Heat
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Donovan Mitchell called Tuesday night a playoff-like test. The Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t able to pass it.
Cleveland capped a ruthless month with a stinging 100-97 loss to the surging Miami Heat, who continue to rise up the Eastern Conference standings. Miami is now six games over .500 and one-and-half games back of Cleveland for the fifth seed. The Cavs finished an uneven January with an 8-8 mark and haven’t won consecutive games in nearly four weeks.
“I thought we came out with great purpose in understanding the moment,” Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “How do we sustain it? These are the tough lessons that you learn. You’re playing against a really good team with some tough gritty guys, and you’ve got to sustain it for 48 minutes. It’s not just a physical toughness, it’s a mental toughness that you have to go out and outwork them. I just thought there were possessions down the stretch where we end up giving up some offensive rebounds and things like that. You can’t afford to give them extra opportunities. Give them credit. That’s why they are who they are because they do go out and they make those plays.”
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There is no replicating playoff pressure and intensity in January. It’s a completely different game. But Tuesday night had some May vibes. Enthusiastic crowd. Battle-tested opponent. Strategical chess match. Back-and-forth tussle with 11 lead changes and 12 ties. Tight rotations and gutsy substitution patterns. Surges and droughts. A slow-paced, low-scoring game played within single digits — and in the halfcourt — for most of the night. Two teams competing hard.
Call it early preparation for what lies ahead. Well, the Cavs hope, anyway.
“In the future teams are gonna throw out anything they can,” Jarrett Allen said. “Players are gonna throw a wrench in the system. They’re gonna try to do anything to throw you off your game and tonight that’s what Miami did. It felt like almost every other possession they’re running a different defense. I don’t want to say it’s all learning experiences because we wanna be at the top. We can’t just keep saying, ‘Oh, we’re learning, we’re learning, we’re learning.’ It’s just, I don’t want to say a let down on our part, but we feel like we could’ve done better.”
Even though the Heat missed eight of their first 10 shots, they eventually settled in on the offensive end and flummoxed Cleveland on defense throughout. The Heat used a variety of defensive tactics. Man-to-man. Their signature 2-3 zone. Traps. Switches. All of it kept the Cavs off balance.
And, when it mattered most, seasoned Miami came through in the clutch.
“You saw a team that’s been there and then you saw a team that hasn’t been there as a group,” Mitchell said. “That’s not a terrible thing. It’s not something that the sky is falling. We learn in these losses what it takes.”
In the fourth quarter, in which the Cavs were outscored 21-18, they shot just 7 of 17 (41.2%) from the field and 2 of 8 (25%) from 3-point range while committing five of their 13 turnovers.
Mitchell, one of the league’s leading fourth-quarter scorers, was held to one point and missed all three of his shot attempts, including the game-tying jumper at the buzzer.
Six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler, who has been slowed by injuries for much of the season and was listed as questionable going into the night because of a quad issue, hit a short jumper to put the Heat up 98-93 with 1:23 left. About a minute later, his free throw — following Bam Adebayo’s timely offensive rebound — allowed Miami to stay in front by five.
After Butler split those late-game foul shots, Darius Garland drained a quick 3-pointer out of the timeout. With 8.7 seconds left, the Miami lead was just two points. Butler was fouled once again on the inbounds pass. As the crowd rose to its feet and hollered, Butler bricked the first freebie before canning the next one.
Down by three, Mitchell had one last shot.
He raced up the floor and pulled up from the right wing. But his leaning triple caromed off the front rim as the buzzer sounded and Mitchell was left sprawled out on the floor.
“They know who to key in on at that point,” Bickerstaff said. “But I thought he did a great job of creating separation and getting a shot off. I thought we got as good a look as we can at that point.”
Cleveland had five players in double figures, led by second-year forward Evan Mobley, who was selected to participate in the Rising Stars — an annual showcase of the league’s premier young players during NBA All-Star Weekend — earlier Tuesday afternoon. Mobley finished with 19 points on 9 of 15 shooting to go with seven rebounds, four assists and two blocks.
Mitchell and backcourt mate Garland each had 16. Allen and Caris LeVert chipped in with 14 apiece.
The Heat were led by Butler, who tallied a game-high 23 points. Adebayo, Caleb Martin and Tyler Herro each added 18.
“They’ve been in that situation many times knowing how to close out games like this,” Allen said of the Heat. “I think we kind of dropped the ball a little bit toward the end and they took advantage of that. These are the situations we want to be in. We want to be in these close games, fighting against the best teams, playoff atmosphere, playoff-type basketball where they find every little area that they can attack us. This is just something that we’re gonna use to grow for where we want to be in the future.”
The Cavs are now just 4-7 in games decided by three points or fewer.
The playoffs are still months away. But that needs to be a focus area. As Tuesday night showed, Cleveland still has work to do.
Welcome back
Veteran forward Kevin Love was active for the first time since Jan. 24, missing three straight games with lower back soreness. Even though Love was healthy enough to play, he did not make an appearance, receiving a DNP-CD. With Bickerstaff only wanting to use nine guys most nights and the organization committed to giving now-healthy Dean Wade a shot, Love’s spot in the nightly rotation seems unclear.
Up next
The Cavs will continue their homestand on Thursday night against the Memphis Grizzlies. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
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