Cavaliers return to exact revenge, rout Heat behind Mitchell's 34

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Jan 29, 2025

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MIAMI — An argument could be made that this one was over on Dec. 8, when the Miami Heat dared defeat the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers.

With the Cavaliers back at Kaseya Center on Wednesday night, Cleveland made clear which team stands dominant atop the Eastern Conference ... and which team doesn’t.

In that regard, order was restored in the 126-106 loss that dropped Erik Spoelstra’s team back to .500, at 23-23, while the Cavaliers exited at 38-9.

Ahead from start to finish, the Cavaliers punished the Heat on both ends even with giving point guard Darus Garland, an All-Star candidate, the night off for rest.

Such is the luxury of the double-double power-play tandem of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen and the scoring of Donovan Mitchell.

Mobley closed with 22 points and 15 rebounds, Allen with 12 points and 10 rebounds, with Mitchell scoring 34.

From the Heat, it was mostly a night of middling beyond 22 points apiece from Tyler Herro and Terry Rozier. Against the size of Mobley and Allen, Bam Adebayo closed with 21 points and nine rebounds, but Kel’el Ware with five points and four rebounds.

Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday night’s game:

— 1. Game flow: The Cavaliers led 31-21 after the first quarter and 59-41 at halftime.

The Heat then went down 19 early in the third, before closing back to 94-84 by the end of the third period.

The Heat got within eight early in the fourth quarter, but that was it, with Cleveland quickly pushing their advantage to 17 shortly thereafter.

Cleveland’s lead peaked at 22, as the Heat continue to play in the suspension absence of Jimmy Butler.

— 2. Uneven night: A night before All-Star reserves are to be named, Herro struggled early, defended frequently by former Heat forward Max Strus, closing 9 of 20 from the field, 4 of 10 on 3-pointers.

Herro’s frustrations boiled over with 69 seconds to play in the third quarter, when he was called for a technical foul for complaining to referee Che Flores. Herro then channeled his anger to score 10 points in the final 40.5 seconds of the period.

The game could have been a showdown of All-Star candidates, with Garland also in the running for a spot as an Eastern Conference reserve (albeit with the All-Star voting by conference coaches completed earlier this week).

— 3. Out of nowhere: After scoring just two points in the first half, Heat forward Highsmith scored 10 points in the opening 2:49 of the third quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers.

As a matter of perspective, Highsmith had totaled 11 points in his previous five appearances, with no more than 15 points in any game since he scored 19 in a Nov. 6 road loss to the Phoenix Suns.

Even with that burst, the Heat still were down 14 after Highsmith scored the 10th of those points in that 2:49 run.

That 10-point burst also closed out Highsmith’s scoring.

— 4. In the paint: For all the fascination with the Heat’s pairing of Adebayo and Ware in the power rotation, the Cavaliers set the tone from the start with paint attacks against the Heat’s wings, leaving them with an initial 26-4 edge in paint points and a 36-18 such advantage at halftime.

Cleveland stood at 20 of 28 on 2-point shots in the first half.

Ultimately, it ended with the Cavaliers outscoring the Heat 68-38 in the paint.

— 5. On the road again: The Heat now have only one home game until Feb. 26.

Up next is a four-game trip, on Saturday to San Antonio, Tuesday to Chicago, Wednesday to Philadelphia and Feb. 7, the day after the NBA trading deadline, to Brooklyn.

Then, after a Feb. 10 home game against the Celtics, the Heat go out for games at Oklahoma City and Dallas before the All-Star break, with games to follow after the break at Toronto, Milwaukee and Atlanta.

Beyond that Feb. 10 game against the Celtics, the Heat do not play at home again until a Feb. 26 game against the Hawks.