Cote: Heat, Panthers both lose big in home Game 3s. One series is done, one just got good | Opinion
The Miami Heat are dead men dribbling, their hopes in these playoffs against Cleveland now down to the faintest, fading heartbeat -- if that. NBA history, logic and the eye-test all say so, and unequivocally. They must now do what has been done this often: Never.
The Florida Panthers could have rendered Tampa Bay nearly nearly as lifeless in their NHL series, as hopeless, but gave them life instead.
The Panthers’ loss saw their advantage fall to 2-1 their first-round series as the Heat tumbled to 0-3 in theirs, both at home Saturday in concurrent games 30 miles apart. Over-matched Miami was embarrassed by the No. 1-seed Cavaliers, 124-87, as Florida was beaten 5-1 (one an empty netter) by the rival Lightning -- the drama drained from one series but vitally back in the other.
Miami has now lost seven straight playoff home games, a club record.
“It’s embarrassing. Flat-out,” said the Heat’s Bam Adebayo of this loss. “There’s no point in looking at film at this point. Scratch this game and move on to Monday.”
“Everybody scored at will, basically,” said the Cavs’ Evan Mobley of the Heat dismantling.
Said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra: “Clearly a very disappointing game. Our guys clearly want this. I know it may look like we don’t. We laid an egg today. Once they got control of the game it became an avalanche.
”Sometimes when you care, there’s a level of discouragement that feeds into that avalanche,” Spoelstra added. “I have to do a better job helping our team offensively, particularly Tyler and Bam.”
The Heat’s Game 3 tip-off in downtown Miami happened as the puck dropped to the northwest in the Panthers’ arena in Sunrise -- a South Florida playoff doubleheader that found fans who are rooting for both teams left to toggle back and forth between channels.
The first two games for each team were on different days, but Games 3 through 7 are scheduled on the same days. [Quick aside to the NBA and NHL: Might be nice to coordinate schedules to not have teams from the same market playing concurrently. Just a thought.]
History in both sports tells us how huge a 3-0 series start is and how onerous 0-3 has proven.
Basketball teams in an 0-3 straitjacket like the Heat are 0-118 all-time on advancing. It has, literally, not been done even once.
The Panthers at 3-0 would have had a 98.1 percent historical likelihood of advancing. Now, it 2-1, it’s still a stout 68.8
Both have Game 4s at home Monday, one poised for a party, the other for a funeral.
The disparity in outlooks goes even beyond the historical data.
The team up 2-1 is the reigning Stanley Cup champion, in the best health they’ve been n all year, and possibly even better than last year’s team with depth that runs five lines deep.
The team down 0-3 had a losing-record regular season and is a play-in survivor facing not only the top seed in the East but the highest-scoring team in the NBA. And this is a Heat team with no real star since Jimmy Butler pouted his way to a trade. A team with no reliable second scoring source after Tyler Herro.
In three losses the Heat have been outscored by 76 combined points in something close to humiliating lopsidedness. Saturday Adebayo scored 22 but got little help. The intensely guarded Herro had but 13. Andrew Wiggins disappeared. Miami was outscored in the paint by 60-30.
“Definitely disappointing. Just not enough obviously to compete against a team like that,” said Herro. “We need a better disposition throughout the entire game.”
Adebayo: “I’m going out swinging. I’m gonna ride it ‘til the wheels fall off. Got to figure out how to get one win.”
Spoelstra has no answers not because he isn’t a great coach but because no answers are available to him. His team is that deficient (the 37-45 season record didn’t lie), and Cleveland is that good.
Miami had a fast 15-6 lead Saturday then gave up an 18-0 run by the Cavs and it wasn’t close from there.
Panthers-Lightning was mostly close until late.
Florida had Aleksander Barkov back despite a hard hit taken in Game 2 and had Aaron Ekblad back from suspension and led 1-0 2:43 in on Matthew Tkachuk’s goal off a Sam Bennett drive. Cats have scored in the first five minutes of all three games.
But desperate Tampa Bay equalized on Jake Guentzel’s shot, later led on a netter by Nick Paul, and got insurance on another Guentzel goal as the third period began.
“We were just late on a bunch of [plays],” said Cats coach Paul Maurice. “I liked our start, the pace of our game. But we stopped moving the puck as well as we can. I thought how we moved the puck slowed our game. If you’re getting 27 shots blocked, you’re late. But I’m not feeling there’s an aberration to how I thought this (series) would go. It’s going be a grind ‘til the end.”
Though both teams lost it was a day to appreciate the Heat and Panthers both in the playoffs at the same time -- a day to appreciate what we have in South Florida sports.
While these games were going on the Dolphins were on the clock in the latter rounds of the NFL Draft. The Marlins are off to a better than expected start. On display outside the Heat arena: The FIFA Club World Cup trophy, a tournament which this summer involves 32 of the best cubs worldwide, including Lionel Messi and Inter Miami.
The Panthers still are poised to make a run at a second straight championship.
The Heat not so much; they should be ready instead for an offseason that will demand much change and improvement after the face-slap they are enduring at the moment.
This story was originally published April 26, 2025 at 3:53 PM.
