Takeaways from Heat’s 11th win in 12 games and Bam Adebayo’s return. Also, an injury update
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 113-98 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers (14-25) on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena:
The Heat (22-18) has won a lot of games in the past month, but there haven’t been many blowouts. Tuesday’s win wasn’t close.
The Heat has won five straight and 11 of its last 12 games, but Tuesday marked its first win of 15 points or more during that 12-game stretch.
In fact, it only marked Miami’s third victory of 15 points or more this season. For perspective, the team with the Eastern Conference’s worst record — the Detroit Pistons — has four such wins this season.
That’s because the Heat plays a lot of close games. Miami has played the second-most clutch games this season at 23, and seven of the 12 games during this 11-1 stretch have fallen in this category.
A clutch game is defined as one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
But there were no clutch minutes in Tuesday’s game.
The Heat led by as many as 22 points, and led by double-digits for the entire second half.
“You’re going to have a lot of different challenges every night,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said following the win. “I think this is a good challenge for us to be able to play with the lead and find a way to continue to extend it and not let them come back. It was a little bit up and down, our game. There was some sloppiness to it, some miscues defensively, but overall we made enough plays to come out with the win.”
Jimmy Butler continued his impressive stretch for Miami with a team-high 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting, to go with 12 rebounds, four assists and two steals. He turned his ankle on a drive to the basket with 3:26 to play, but he stayed in the game.
Heat big man Kelly Olynyk recorded 17 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks and three steals.
The Cavaliers’ final lead of the game came midway through the first quarter. Cleveland shot 10 of 35 (28.6 percent) from three-point range in the loss.
Collin Sexton led the Cavaliers with a team-high 21 points.
Meanwhile, the Heat shot 49.4 percent from the field and outscored the Cavaliers 19-10 at the free-throw line.
The Heat got star center Bam Adebayo back from injury, and he was able to play 30 minutes.
After missing the previous four games because of left knee tendinitis, Adebayo was back in the starting lineup Tuesday against the Cavaliers. He finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, six assists and two blocks.
“I’m back and just getting back in the flow,” Adebayo said. “I hadn’t played in two weeks. So this was real time. It was just good to go through that experience.”
Adebayo was able to play 30 minutes, but Spoelstra worked to shorten his on-court stints in his first game back.
“There will be a lot of communication between myself, [athletic trainer Jay Sabol] and Bam,” Spoelstra said before Tuesday’s contest. “He easily could play over 30 minutes, but I’m going to try to limit those big blocks of segments. He will not play 12 straight minutes in this game tonight. If I can get him in and out quicker so he doesn’t have to deal with fatigue, I think that would be the appropriate plan and then we’ll just take it from there.
“He’s ready to go. He’s been ready for over a week. We all feel really good about this plan. He has been putting in a great deal of work behind the scenes and hopefully we can just put it behind us.”
With Adebayo back, the Heat’s ever-evolving rotation again looked a little different.
Adebayo started alongside Miami’s four other regular starters Kendrick Nunn, Duncan Robinson, Butler and Olynyk.
But second-year forward KZ Okpala, who started in place of the injured Adebayo in the previous four games, remained in the rotation.
The Heat used a four-man bench rotation that included Goran Dragic, Okpala, Tyler Herro and Andre Iguodala. Gabe Vincent and Chris Silva entered in the final seconds.
Okpala scored five points and grabbed five rebounds in 24 minutes, and his switchability and versatility on the defensive end were on full display. He guarded pretty much every position on the court, serving as Sexton’s primary defender on some possessions and switching onto center Jarrett Allen on others.
With Okpala remaining in the rotation, center Precious Achiuwa did not play Tuesday. It marked Achiuwa’s second DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of his rookie season.
Meanwhile, Okpala has played in seven of the past eight games. It looks like he has earned a spot in the rotation for now after playing in just 14 of the Heat’s first 28 games this season.
Spoelstra said of Okpala: “He has really made the most of what he can and that’s the development behind the scenes, the film sessions, the work before and after just to prepare for himself to be able to produce and be productive out there when his number is called.”
The Heat faced another struggling team, and again took advantage with its 19th consecutive win over the Cavaliers in Miami.
Tuesday’s matchup against the Cavaliers marked the Heat’s seventh straight game against a sub-.500 opponent (record at the time of the Heat’s game against each opponent). Miami improved to 6-1 during this stretch, with its last game against a winning team coming nearly three weeks ago — a Feb. 26 win over the Utah Jazz.
The Heat is 17-7 against sub-.500 teams and 5-10 against teams with a winning record this season.
The Cavaliers, which entered tied for the third-worst record in the Eastern Conference, have been among the NBA’s worst teams statistically this season. Cleveland entered with the league’s worst offensive rating, eighth-worst defensive rating and worst net rating.
The Cavaliers were also without forward Kevin Love on Tuesday because of right calf soreness. Love has played in just five games this season.
Tuesday also represented the Heat’s 19th straight win over the Cavaliers in Miami, which is the longest home win streak against any opponent in franchise history. The last time Cleveland earned a win in Miami came on Jan. 25, 2010.
The Heat’s next three games also come against teams currently with a losing record — the Memphis Grizzlies and Indiana Pacers (twice).
Heat guard Avery Bradley is close to a return, but he’s not ready yet. Andre Iguodala (left hip soreness), Moe Harkless (illness) and Bradley did not travel with the team to Memphis early Wednesday morning.
Bradley, 30, was listed as questionable for Tuesday’s matchup against the Cavaliers because of a right calf strain that has forced him to miss the past six weeks of game action. That’s encouraging, considering Bradley had been listed as out for every game since sustaining the calf injury during a Feb. 3 loss to the Washington Wizards.
But Bradley was ruled out shortly before tip-off on Tuesday, as he missed his 19th straight game.
“I was surprised he was listed as questionable,” Spoelstra said of Bradley prior to Tuesday’s contest. “He hasn’t done a full-scale equivalent of a practice yet. But he is doing a lot of work. We’re all encouraged by the progress that he’s making. He’s not quite there yet.”
The Heat is right back at it Wednesday against the Grizzlies (9 p.m., Fox Sports Sun) at FedExForum on the second night of a back-to-back. Bradley will also miss that game.
Bradley, Harkless and Iguodala did not travel with the team to Memphis following Tuesday’s win.
Harkless was on the active roster against the Cavaliers, but he did not play. Iguodala finished with eight points and shot 2 of 2 on threes in nine first-half minutes, but he did not play in the second half.
The good news for the Heat is that Butler did travel with the team to Memphis despite turning his ankle late in Tuesday’s victory.
The Heat has 13 players on the trip. The four who did not travel are Bradley, Harkless, Iguodala and Meyers Leonard (league suspension/season-ending shoulder surgery).
The Heat’s next injury update is expected on the NBA’s 1:30 p.m. injury report on Wednesday.
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 10:28 PM.
