The Cleveland Cavaliers became the first to clinch a playoff spot Wednesday night against the shorthanded Miami Heat, winning 112-107.
The Heat were down three starters–Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware and Andrew Wiggins–due to injury, but they were still able to scrap and claw their way to a competitive charge against the best team in the NBA.
The Cavaliers, winners of now 12 straight, persevered down the stretch, outscoring the Heat 12-2 in the game’s final 4:13.
Led by Bam Adebayo, Miami shot 43.4 percent from the floor and 36.1 percent from deep with 22 free-throw makes. Wednesday was one of Adebayo’s most complete games of the season, scoring 34 points with 12 rebounds, five assists and two steals on 11-of-18 shooting and 3-of-5 from 3-point range.
Duncan Robinson followed suit with 14 points and three rebounds on 5-of-10 shooting with four triples; Haywood Highsmith had 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting while Kevin Love had 10 points and six boards in his return to Cleveland, where he received a video tribute in the first quarter.
One of the biggest conundrums all season reared its ugly head again Wednesday: Terry Rozier led all players with 40 minutes played. He scored just 12 points on 3-of-14 shooting with incredibly questionable decision-making and deflating mistakes that gave Cleveland momentum down the stretch.
He’s also shooting 26 percent from 3-point range since the start of the new year and had as many turnovers (4) as he did field goal makes (3) in Wednesday’s loss.
It’s been a bizarre development over the course of the season and one continues to become more indefensible than it already is. Erik Spoelstra is one of the best coaches in the NBA and was a huge reason why the beleaguered Heat were competitive Wednesday–but this is not without question.
Donovan Mitchell tallied a team-high 26 points on 8-of-17 shooting for the Cavaliers. Darius Garland dished out a game-high 10 assists while scoring 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting; De’Andre Hunter and Evan Mobley had 16 points apiece while Max Strus had 11 points on 3-of-7 from deep against his former team.
Once again, the Heat drop back to three games below .500 as the No. 7 seed in the East. They return home Friday for a five-game homestand, beginning with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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i hope bams perf is not a one night stand.ty wiggy ware all out so who else was left.he had to score and be aggressive but he has to do this with or w/o the other guys every friggin night.hes paid max contract so act like a maxy.like rich jefferson said 17-20 shot attempts every night
Terry Rozier Was So Bad, the Betting Allegations Make Sense
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KJBU463C-lU
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/82HAxt8o7qM
Terry, I hope his signing does not become a burst. Like I observed before, his offense is two dimensional and makes him very predictable. It is either a 3 shot attempt or drive down to the rim. This makes it easier to defend him or make him take tough shots.
I like his grit and desire to go down lane, but not making neither those or his open 3 points is not looking good. He has to work on developing his mid range shots. That will make him a more rounded player on offense. In contrast, Herro could knock down 3s or midrange but was lacking in going down lane. He worked on this aspect of his game, and now he has a more diverse arsenal in his kit.Herro also draws defenders to him thus opening a weak side on the opponent’s defense for the Heat to take advantage of. Rozier keep your confidence, work on your shots and the rest will be history.
YardBarker had an interesting article on Bam Adebayo’s ascension to superstardom during last night’s game against Cleveland.
https://allucanheat.com/bam-adebayo-may-have-taken-a-leap-in-heat-s-close-call-vs-cavs?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email&sc=e0273490fd355e2c28bdb25751d41af65a4dd80936ff00a80be9866c97887955
What I also found interesting in the article was the following paragraph, which I agree with 100%:
“Of course, it wasn’t all roses for the Heat. Terry Rozier continued his horrific play, inexplicably logging 40 minutes despite shooting just 21% from the field. His baffling turnovers and poor decision-making nearly sabotaged Miami’s upset bid. At this point, it’s hard to justify Rozier seeing the floor at all, let alone leading the team in minutes.”
Here’s another YardBarker article addressing Bam and Rozier:
Bam Adebayo nearly lifts Heat in upset over Cavs, but 1 player dragged them down
Bam Adebayo did all he could to lift the Heat to victory.
https://allucanheat.com/bam-adebayo-nearly-lifts-heat-in-upset-over-cavs-but-1-player-dragged-them-down? utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email&sc=e0273490fd355e2c28bdb25751d41af65a4dd80936ff00a80be9866c97887955
Another observation in the article I agree with:
“A key reason why the Heat lost was receiving no offensive production from Terry Rozier, who missed all of his second-half shots, including back-to-back 3-pointers, with one resulting in an airball. It was also very questionable to see Davion Mitchell check in the fourth quarter with under two minutes to go, knowing that the Heat had a lead and needed stops.”
davions d kept him on bench hes not very good from what ive seen,just to small think spo saw that,but to even play terry at this stage is a spo scratcher..the loss of dru smith is going under the radar might have been more of a loss than the quitter.kid was playing at a high level.
No excuse playing Rozier over Mitchell, over Larsson for that matter. Why isn’t Spo letting Stevens and Johnson have a chance to show what they can do. Johnson is already on a regular contract. Just like Ware was for months …Johnson is wasting away on the bench.
he goes with sorry ass vets over unkown players.hes scared to take a risk with unkowns i guess
Note: Wiggins has lower FG%, 3PT% and FT% than Rozier. Wiggins has higher PPG because he takes 3.5 more shots per game. So there’s that.
wiggins little above average player doesnt do anything real well but no dunc d liability.
not true
“That sounds a whole lot like you’re calling me a liar amigo.”
Per ESPN stats (see below)
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/mia/table/game/sort/freeThrowPct/dir/desc
Hmmm, looking at Wiggins directly on ESPN (either through search bar or by going to teams-Heat-roster-Wiggins) I show (for this complete season) 43.5% fg%, 36.7% 3p%.
It also shows last 10 games 34.3% fg%, 30% 3p%.
Is it possible you’re looking at his numbers since joining the Heat?
Absolutely. What he did with the Warriors doesn’t help us. Just like Rozier’s stats with Hornets don’t help us.
The stats I’m concerned about are those after being traded to Miami.
Rozier’s 2024 stats with Charlotte
23.2 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 6.6 apg, 45.9 fg%, 35.8 3pt%
Rozier’s 2025 stats with Miami
11.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 2.8 apg, 39.9 fg%, 29.4 3pt%
Wiggins’ stats with his former team, like Rozier’s, don’t really help Miami at this point. Although his overall stats this year are comparable to his career stats, he has missed 4 of 10 games (40%) since arriving in Miami. This season, he had missed only 7 of 52 games (13.5%) with the Warriors. In his career, he has played in a total of 755 of 885 regular season games (85.3%).
Again, I’m interested in today and tomorrow, not yesterday.
Okay, just clarifying
terry 40 29 wig 43 37
Per YardBarker:
Down 108-107 with 2:48 remaining, this was the offensive sequence for the Heat:
2:15 remaining — missed three-pointer1:45 remaining — missed three-pointer1:39 remaining — missed three three-pointer:59 remaining — missed three-pointerThis was the critical point of the game — the Heat, with more patience, should’ve relied on better shot selection to get fouls and/or layups. There was enough time left not to desperately attempt long three-pointers.
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I agree. Miami needs a closer who can create his own shots at crunch time. They don’t need to be 3 pointers. Preferably someone who can get easier shots, initiate foul calls, stop the clock and get free throws. This is the biggest skill “Playoff Jimmy” provided late in games that the team now lacks.
josh christophers got shake n bake can get his own shot.seen him do it before.
They need to give them all a chance.
agree with this squad the ceiling is a playoff loss to bost or cleveland.with keshod josh stevens 3 city ballers could be higher with the new almost ss bam healthy ware fading ty and disappearing wiggy gotta put mr no d as our 5th best player.slo mo 6th terry15th
Spot on!
Well, the good thing was that Heat were close despite Terry. The bad thing is, that the best Bams game in year got wasted.
im putting an apb out for a terry rozier jump shot.it looks like a shot that has no chance of going in from a guy whos tatooed from head to toe if youve seen one of these ever go thru the net please alert me .
Put one out for Wiggins’ too.
yeah wtf happened to him.he took some of jimmy s vacation pills he left in the locker room?
I hope he doesn’t demand an extension next week and/or to be traded to Lakers.
i dont remember when he got jimmy hurt,u think he saw the roster and said gmtfoh.after playing with terry and watching 55 play d that might have done him in lol
terry rozier 000 and spobot down heat should be the lead story