The Miami Heat could not mount a second-half comeback and dropped Game 1 to the Cleveland Cavaliers 121-100 Sunday night inside Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
For the majority of the second half, the Heat’s deficit rested between 7-12 points. Though a second-half explosion from guard Ty Jerome expanded the Cavaliers’ advantage to 17 with 4:29 left, putting the game essentially out of reach.
Jerome was the best player on the floor down the stretch, scoring 16 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter, nearly outscoring the Heat–who had 21 points in the frame–by himself. Jerome accounted for all but six of the Cavaliers’ production off the bench–the rest coming from Sam Merrill.
For the game, Cleveland canned 51.1 percent of its looks to the Heat’s 48.8 percent, outscoring the Heat by 15 from 3-point range. Donovan Mitchell led the way with 30 points on 11-of-19 shooting, while Darius Garland followed suit with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting.
Bam Adebayo topped the Heat in scoring with 24 points on 10-of-22 shooting, hauling in nine rebounds with a pair of steals in 39 minutes. Tyler Herro finished with 21 points on 7-of-18 shooting and 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. Davion Mitchell had 18 points and nine assists on 8-of-12 shooting while Andrew Wiggins had 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting.
Cleveland’s gameplan was noticeable from the start: Putting Tyler Herro, the weakest defender on the court, in the action every time and take advantage of his lack of defensive prowess–thus also tiring him out for the shoulder he had to burden offensively.
Well, it worked to perfection. Miami had no answer. Cleveland also relentlessly attacked Kel’el Ware in drop and Haywood Highsmith, who’s taken a step back this year defensively, in space.
Game 1 won’t dictate the entire series. Adjustments will need to be made. Miami concludes its trip away from home Wednesday evening. Do you think they will be able to steal Game 2?
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So the 1-seed protected their home court in game 1. It sucks for us, sure, but it’s not the end of the world. We’ve got another chance to steal home court advantage on Wednesday. If we can do that, then it’s a whole new series.
True
We have been buns at home for 2 years now home court overrated in this heat era
Listen, we may not have been whole loaves at home, but we’re at least baguettes. We’re certainly more than buns.
It’s one game. I still hope I was wrong in how I felt at the end of the season. I would rather hfl was right about how we could beat eastern teams. I will temper my disappointment with this game and the lost pick and hope for a better outcome next game. Because, after all, it IS just a game. There are more important things in life as I was reminded of once again today.
11 th pick or last night ill take 11th pick.next game herros gonna have to man up and just be more physical.i thought he had improved defensively after last night hes back in duncans dog house .of sht d.if he guards like that again u have to reduce his minutes.ill take the swedish sensation over what i saw from tyler last night.pitiful herro u should be embarassed..
its sports rc doesnt mean squat.enjoy the entertainment better than a movie or the crape shows on tv.most people choose to do other things with their time we hhhers choose heat as a primary source of entertainment
Some legitimacy to the excuse we were exhausted too. Two nights for regular season is fine, but not for the intensity of the playoffs. Look at what it did to Memphis. Next game we will pretty much know our chances.
I would give the team the day off today. They looked tired and sloppy in that first quarter.
Also, if you made the playoffs because you want to give your younger players experience well then you have to play them. Play Ware more, play Jovic, and I would even find a way to play JJJ. Don’t blow two picks just to play Highsmith 30 mins and watching Donovan Mitchell turn him in to BBQ chicken.
Start Davion, don’t play Burks, play Jovic and see if that with an extra day of rest makes it a more competitive game. Go HEAT!
Totally agree about Highsmith. I like H, but come on man he gone in a year anyway. Burks I think you gotta play
If this was the outcome of making the playoffs I’d be all for it. But if you’ve watched Spo enough, you know that it won’t be. We’ll continue to see HH, Burks and SloMo.
Getting Jovic, who is our second youngest player some meaningful playoff minutes. Getting Pelle some run. Even Jaquez who I’ve kind of written off, would at least be interesting.
Getting swept or gentlemen swept while losing likely 11th overall pick, isn’t fun.
Within striking distance early in 4th. lost steam? Spo has a lot of planning to do both ends.
Tyler scoreless in the 4th. He’s been great this season. But the Heat just don’t have a guy that can lead the team to victory in the 4th quarter of a playoff game. Let’s hope the Heat can keep Bam and Tyler and add KD next season.
Im way past KD already. Sorry. And its Heat’s first playoffs without Jimmy quitter. Tyler will need to learn to be that guy. Just the first game Cavs looking like the real deal.
cavs bost okc.3 best teams.quitters team prob 4th.denver not the same terrible bench and murrays not the same player.40 year old lebron showing his age lala team done.minny has the antman hes making that whole team really good they could be a threat to okc.bost cleve are headed for a showdown(tesla).rock on rc
no spo sat bam then things went to sht,
Clean up some of the turnovers, Ty Jerome is not gonna turn into Steph Curry (I imagine that’s what it was like for Boston Fans watching Caleb Martin), Bam has gotta hit those open paint jumpers, better bounces or fight harder for loose balls.
That’s kinda all within our control.
Even then series does probably come down to finding Herro some more open and easy shots, keeping Donovan Mitchell from taking over, and piecing together an Anderson Game a Duncan game a HighSmith game and a Burks game.
ill read sunmans lebron posts tomorrow morning with his observations and remedies,
tyler herro if u cant guard better we got no shot.for me that was the main reason we lost.i dont know what to do but their gonna seek him out.might have to go zone more
jimmy friggin butler wow i hate u so much y did u do this to us we dont deserve it
Maybe we do. We had Rozier, JJJ, HH, Jovic, Bryant and Love masquerading as support. And then Pat added Burks in the offseason. Look at the difference when we got Wiggins and Mitchell. Why didn’t he get us players like that when we had Jimmy?
rozier was suppose to be the pg of the future.if we would have gotten bost char terry quitter prob wouldnt have quit.quitter was tired of doing the heavy lifting so he went to a team with a generational player.good move on his part the way he went about it of course sukd.who the f thought the gambler could be this bad.no fault of pat on that onedrafting players athletically challenged u can blame the octogenarian.the loss of bryant was a bummer.but rc said his apron was to high.love was washed since he came here what a waste of $$$.
No, Bryant’s salary wasn’t too high. Adding another player without moving Bryant would have caused the cap problem, and they wanted to give Dru a regular contract. When he got hurt, they gave it to Keshad. Even though Keshad hasn’t played (which makes no sense to me), I would rather have him than Bryant.
The answer to your question is because it took unloading $45 million in salary to get those players here. With questionable contracts like Lowry, Duncan, and, unfortunately, Rozier, the opportunity wasn’t there.
That is the other side. And you have a point. But….you know as well as I how the Godfather turned into a whaler for two seasons with little return. And, the contracts were part of that too. I give Pat credit for getting us off Jimmy purgatory, but he took a part in Jimmy’s untenable situation. And truthfully, taking everything into account, all the parameters, all the difficulties and limitations, I still think another GM would have been able to build a stronger team these last two years. The story could have been so much better.
or it could have been worse.it is what it is pat wasnt good enough though is the #1 reason for our pretty good team but not good enough or is it lets talk in another week