Heat falls back to .500 after blowout loss to Cavaliers. Takeaways and details
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 126-106 blowout loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday night at Kaseya Center to close its quick two-game homestand at 1-1 and fall back to .500. The Heat (23-23) now hits the road to begin a four-game trip on Saturday against the San Antonio Spurs:
The Heat has been leaning into bigger lineups lately. But the Cavaliers’ size and talent was still a problem, as the Heat’s season-long struggles against quality teams continued.
Even with the Heat starting the double-big frontcourt of Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware for the fifth consecutive game, the Cavaliers used a big 68-38 advantage in paint points to cruise to the 20-point road win.
The Cavaliers also finished with a 20-10 edge in second-chance points behind a 13-6 advantage in offensive rebounds.
“Disrupting things in the paint a lot better than we did, at the rim, in the paint, in the dotted circle,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of what could have been better Wednesday. “That’s our strength zone right there and they pretty much had their way in that area.”
The Heat played from behind from start to finish on Wednesday, as the game features no lead changes or ties. Instead, the Cavaliers opened the scoring with a Donovan Mitchell jumper to pull ahead 2-0 and led the rest of the way.
The Cavaliers, which hold the Eastern Conference’s top record at 38-9, dominated the first half to take an 18-point lead into halftime.
The Heat found some life in the third quarter, exploding for 43 points in the period after scoring just 41 points in the first half. That high scoring quarter allowed the Heat to cut the deficit to 10 entering the fourth quarter.
But after the Heat trimmed the deficit to eight with 11:15 left in the final period, the Cavaliers responded with a 13-5 run to push their lead back up to 16 with 7:26 to play and close the door on the Heat’s slim chances of a comeback.
The Cavaliers’ lead grew to as large as 22 points in the final minutes.
“That just lets you know the difference in this league from the No. 1 team in the East to wherever the three or four or five spot is at,” Heat guard Terry Rozier said after the loss. “They’re connected, they play together. Every time we battled back and brought it to 10, they just pushed it right back up to 16, 18.”
Mitchell led Cleveland with a game-high 34 points. Evan Mobley added 22 points and 15 rebounds for the Cavaliers.
Tyler Herro and Rozier each scored a team-high 22 points for the Heat. It marked Rozier’s second-highest scoring game of the season.
Adebayo contributed 21 points, nine rebounds, three assists and one block for the Heat.
When it was done, the Heat was outscored by 13 points in the 19 minutes that Adebayo and Ware played together on Wednesday. The Heat also posted a defensive rebounding percentage (the percentage of available defensive rebounds a team grabs) of 66.7 percent in the Adebayo-Ware minutes during the loss, which would rank last in the NBA among teams for the season.
“We’re a bigger frontline and this needs to be corrected,” Spoelstra said of the Heat’s rebounding issues with Adebayo and Ware on the court against the Cavaliers. “There are no excuses now. We have to be a lot more physical and purposeful on the glass. It’s that important for us to finish possessions.”
Adebayo added: “The second-chance points are a big problem that we need to hone in on. But it’s not just because we got two bigs out there, you think you’re going to fix a problem. You’re trying to add pressure to a rookie that just really started getting his minutes and started to get his feet wet. So I don’t really look at it in that sense. But we do collectively as a group have to get better at rebounding.”
The Cavaliers earned some revenge with Wednesday’s win after losing to the Heat in their first matchup of the season. The Heat recorded a 122-113 win over the Cavaliers in Miami on Dec. 8 before Cleveland took the teams’ second meeting of the season.
The third and final meeting of the regular season between the Heat and Cavaliers will come in Cleveland on March 5.
Wednesday’s loss dropped the Heat to 10-19 this season against teams that entered the day with a winning record.
Nine of the Heat’s next 10 games will come on the road, with its only home game during that time coming against the Boston Celtics on Feb. 10.
“I think this is, I don’t want to say make or break our season, but it’s going to be huge for us,” Rozier said of this upcoming stretch. “These are games we need to win.”
As the Heat searches for some stability amid the Jimmy Butler saga, it stuck with the same starting lineup on Wednesday.
The Heat opened its third straight game with the lineup of Herro, Duncan Robinson, Haywood Highsmith, Ware and Adebayo.
The Heat, which has used 11 different starting lineups through the first 46 games this season, is now 2-1 since turning to this starting group for the first time.
This lineup produced encouraging results in its first two starts together. The Heat outscored opponents by an impressive 13.5 points per 100 possessions in 21 minutes over the previous two games with the Herro-Robinson-Highsmith-Ware-Adebayo combination on the court.
Most of that success came on the defensive end, as the Heat limited its opponents to just 84.1 points per 100 possessions during the previous two games with this lineup on the court.
But the results weren’t positive in the lineup’s third start, as the Cavaliers outscored the Heat 19-13 over the first 7:16 of Wednesday’s game before Miami made its first substitution.
The Heat’s starting lineup then played the Cavaliers to a 19-19 tie to begin the second half before Miami made its first substitution of the third quarter.
In the end, the Heat’s Herro-Robinson-Highsmith-Ware-Adebayo lineup was outscored by 10 points in 15 minutes together on Wednesday.
The Heat played without Jimmy Butler (team suspension), Josh Richardson (right heel inflammation), Dru Smith (left Achilles surgery) and Isaiah Stevens (G League) on Wednesday.
The Cavaliers had just 10 players in uniform, as they were missing Darius Garland (rest), Caris LeVert (right wrist sprain), Isaac Okoro (right shoulder sprain), JT Thor (G League), Luke Travers (G League), Sam Merrill (illness) and Dean Wade (right knee bone bruise) against the Heat.
It was a rough game for talented Heat rookie Kel’el Ware.
Rookie seasons usually feature plenty of ups and downs. Lately there have been more ups than downs for Ware, but Wednesday was a down night for the 7-footer.
Ware closed the loss with five points on 2-of-6 shooting from the field and 1-of-4 shooting on threes, four rebounds and three assists against the Cavaliers’ big frontcourt anchored by the duo of Allen and Evan Mobley. Ware also struggled on the defensive end, whether the Heat was in its man or zone scheme.
The Heat was outscored by 17 points in Ware’s 29 minutes on Wednesday.
“They’re capable inside the circle and there’s a lot of decision making there,” Spoelstra said of the lessons that Ware can learn from his rough outing against Allen and Mobley. “One, you have to defend with purpose and intent and physicality and without fouling. Not giving up the short hooks or things at the rim at a high rate. But also then with their spacing, not just chasing unrealistic blocks that open up things, as well. That’s part of it. Their spacing is very good, so there are a lot of decisions you have to make underneath the basket when you’re rotating. But that’s part of the deal.”
After logging double-digit minutes in just two of the Heat’s first 25 games this season, Ware has now played double-digit minutes in 22 consecutive games and has started five straight games.
The day before learning whether he has been selected as an All-Star reserve, Herro turned in another 20-point performance.
Herro closed Wednesday’s loss with 22 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field and 4-of-10 shooting on threes, five rebounds and six assists.
It marked the 32nd game that Herro has finished with 20 or more points this season. That’s tied for the 10th most such games in the league this season.
Next up for Herro is Thursday night’s announcement of the reserves for the 2025 All-Star Game, which will take place on Feb. 16 at Chase Center in San Francisco. Herro is hoping to be selected as an All-Star for the first time in his NBA career.
Head coaches pick the seven All-Star reserves from each conference, which will be announced on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on TNT. The seven reserve spots include three frontcourt players, two guards and two additional players regardless of position.
“I do think he’s an All-Star and I’m not trying to be one of those guys,” Spoelstra said of Herro. “I’m not sending anything all around the league or anything. I just do. I think he’s an All-Star guard. I think that would be a great nod to be able to get it from the coaches. I think that’s the ultimate sign of respect.”
Herro has the strongest All-Star case among Heat players based on the combination of his play and availability this season.
Herro, who turned 25 on Jan. 20, entered Wednesday averaging career highs in points (24.1 per game), rebounds (5.6) and assists (5.4) while also shooting a career-best 47.4 percent from the field and a career-best 40 percent from three-point range on a career-high 9.7 three-point attempts per game. He has missed just one game this season.
Through the Heat’s inconsistent play this season, one thing has held true: The Heat’s offense isn’t good enough to win high-scoring games.
Wednesday’s loss dropped the Heat to 10-23 this season when allowing its opponent to score more than 100 points. That’s the ninth-worst winning percentage in the NBA this season in such games.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Heat is a perfect 13-0 this season when limiting its opponent to 100 points or fewer.
The bottom line is the Heat needs to drag teams into the mud with quality defense and make it a low-scoring game to win consistently.
Unfortunately for the Heat, the Heat’s defense has been fine but not great this season. After Wednesday’s defeat, the Heat holds the 11th-ranked defensive rating in the NBA this season.
This story was originally published January 29, 2025 at 9:50 PM.
