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.
It read to me like a playoff game with the quality and intensity.
...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. ...
“I thought we came out with great purpose in understanding the moment,”
Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. ..."You’re playing against a really good team
with some tough gritty guys...It’s not just a physical toughness, it’s a mental toughness...Give them credit. That’s why they are who they are..."
"Heat Culture." 45 dubs per year.
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.
👆Everything I thought following but not seeing the game.
...
..."It felt like almost every other possession they’re running a different defense."--Jarrett Allen.
...the Heat...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.
...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.”--Donovan Mitchell.
Heat gets big win in Cleveland. Details and takeaways
▪ No team has played more close games than the Heat, and that trend continued.
...Miami has played a league high 148 minutes of clutch time, defined by the NBA as games with a margin of five points or fewer in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime. The Heat is now 20-15 in games featuring clutch minutes.
...
The Heat’s defense was very good; Cleveland shot just 11 for 40 (27.5 percent) on threes, with Mitchell shooting 3 for 13 on threes. “We switched up the coverages from zone to man, switching to blitzing, throwing different looks at their guards and making them make plays on the fly, making the right reads which is never easy,” Herro said. “Making them make threes and speeding them up a little bit.”
...
▪ The Heat’s offense malfunctioned to start the fourth, but Herro snapped Miami out of that funk and Adebayo and Butler carried Miami home. Miami didn’t get a point from its first eight fourth-quarter possessions, which ended with three misses from Vincent, turnovers by Victor Oladipo and Max Strus, and a Caris LaVert block of an Oladipo layup in transition and an Oladipo turnover on a Dean Wade steal. Then Adebayo couldn’t get a shot off against Evan Mobley, a possession ending in a shot clock violation.
I mentioned that as well last night. After the breath-taking 3rd Q both teams were the gang that couldn't shoot straight.
...
▪ This was another quiet night from Kyle Lowry. The Heat’s point guard opened 0 for 2, finished 2 for 5 and is now 8 for his last 29. He’s shooting a career-low 40 percent from the field. His 12 first half minutes didn’t include a point, rebound, steal or assist but featured two turnovers. Then he committed a turnover on the Heat’s first possession of the second half. His first basket of the night came on a corner three, 4:14 into the third. Lowry has now scored in single digits in six of his past eight games. He closed with six points, two assists and three turnovers in 24 minutes. And for the third time in four games, Erik Spoelstra played Vincent or Oladipo ahead of Lowry during the game’s decisive moments.
Kyle is either shot or doesn't want to be here. Based on nothing other than his still unexplained "personal days" last season and his reaction to the Jimmy Butler-Erik Spoelstra-Udonis Haslem near fist-fight, I get the sense Kyle didn't quite know what he was getting himself into in Miami. Toronto is very kumbaya; Miami very kung fu fighting.
