After a dominating offensive performance from the Miami Heat last night in their win over the Phoenix Suns, they will now play host to the top seed Cleveland Cavaliers. It will be the second night of a back-to-back for both teams, and the Cavs enter the Kaseya Center tonight sporting a 21-3 record— good for first place out of both conferences.
The Heat earned their way back over the .500 mark with Saturday night’s win, with an 11-10 record and sitting at the sixth seed in the East. They are just .5 games behind fifth and 2.0 behind fourth, and have gone 6-3 in their last nine matchups. Miami is also undefeated in their new blood red jerseys (4-0) and 6-2 with their revamped starting lineup of Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler, Haywood Highsmith and Bam Adebayo.
That group combined for 99 of the Heat’s 121 points yesterday, with Butler and Herro shooting 17 of 24 from the field on masterful efficiency of 71% out of the duo. Adebayo was also 9 of 16 on 57%.
https://x.com/hothothoops/status/1865600318643306576?s=46&t=70KMxl0CSvAS2niDn8R-TQ
Heat fans finally saw the true potential of this Big three, and their top heavy talent in the lineup will be crucial to earn the upset over Cleveland.
The Cavs have been led by Donovan Mitchell’s 24.2 points per game, but a lot of their identity comes on the inside from Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Mobley dropped an elite 41 points and 10 rebounds double-double in their win yesterday against the Charlotte Hornets.
With Miami’s small ball lineup sporting an undersized Highsmith at the power forward position, it will be interesting to see what kind of defensive schemes they throw at Cleveland’s lengthy frontcourt. Can the Heat continue their recent success in an upset and expand to their first three-game winning streak?
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- NOT YET SUBMITTED.
Cleveland Cavaliers:
- NOT YET SUBMITTED.
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Tyler Herro, G
- Duncan Robinson, G
- Jimmy Butler, F
- Haywood Highsmith, F
- Bam Adebayo, C
Cleveland Cavaliers:
- Darius Garland, G
- Donovan Mitchell, G
- Dean Wade, F
- Evan Mobley, F
- Jarrett Allen, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 6:00 PM EST
- TV: FanDuel Sports Network Sun (Eric Reid & John Crotty)
- Radio: AM 560 Sports WQAM & The HEAT Radio Network (Jason Jackson)
- Spanish Radio: WAQI 710 AM & The HEAT Spanish Radio Network (José Pañeda)
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Today’s game should be a very good gauge of where Miami stands. Rebounding may be the key. Yesterday, Miami and Phoenix both had 41 rebounds, despite the absence of the Suns’ top two rebounders (Nurkic and Durant). Bam had 12 rebounds. Meanwhile, Cleveland outrebounded Charlotte by 10, with Mobley and Allen each having 10 rebounds.
After today, Miami has two games, Toronto and Detroit, added on as a result of not qualifying for the mid-season playoffs. The team will then finish out December with six games, four against top tier teams, OKC, Orlando (twice) and Houston one against 5th place Atlanta and one against 8th place Brooklyn. If they split those games, they will finish 2024 with a record of 15-14. After that, it will be 5 weeks until the trade deadline.
If the Heat can win or be relatively competitive today, it should give Riley all the encouragement he needs to aggressively pursue a trade that will be a true difference maker. If it appears Miami is outclassed, Riley may instead choose to pivot from trying to “win it all” to planning for the future.
We were saying how tough this series of games upcoming was going to be. Then we beat the Lakers, and they were not a test because they were playing bad. Then we beat the Suns and they are no good without Durant. Whatever happens, there is no way to diminish what an accomplishment it would be to beat Cleveland. OTOH, we will have the B2B excuse if we lose. Otherwise, we got this…
Cavs are playing back to back too…on the road. Miami is at home.
Winners look for solutions. Losers look for excuses. “There’s no crying in baseball.”
Miami just needs to play b***s out and let the chips fall where they may. No excuses and no regrets!