After an embarrassing effort during Saturday’s Game 3 loss at home, the Miami Heat will attempt to avoid a series sweep tonight against the East’s top seed Cleveland Cavaliers. Miami showed some fight in the first half of this series back in Cleveland, especially in Game 2, just to come out and put up a goose egg in front of their home crowd.
The Heat have not won a home playoff game since Game 3 of the 2023 Eastern Conference finals against the Boston Celtics. Since then, they have lost seven in a row.
Additionally, they could be in jeopardy of surrendering just their third postseason series sweep in franchise history.
During the Game 3 loss, the Cavs got strong efforts from several pieces of their rotation. Jarrett Allen and Max Strus seemingly provided the biggest impact in what was an efficient team-wide offensive masterclass. Cleveland shot 53% from the field compared to Miami’s 42%.
Bam Adebayo did all he could to help the Heat’s chances, as the All-Star big man added 20 points and 9 rebounds on nearly 50% shooting. However, offensive struggles from each of Tyler Herro and Andrew Wiggins made it far too difficult to make up for their lack of scoring production.
Rookie center Kel’el Ware has gotten his “welcome to the league” moments all series long, as well. Allen punished Ware in the interior, as the Heat big man has also been virtually nonexistent offensively throughout the series.
It will take an inspiring performance from Miami to hold off the Cavs and avoid the sweep. Can they get it done, or is this forgettable 2024-25 season coming to an end tonight?
Injury Report (at the time of this publishing):
Miami Heat:
- Kevin Love (personal reasons) — OUT
- Terry Rozier (ankle) — OUT
- Kyle Anderson (illness) — QUESTIONABLE
Cleveland Cavaliers:
- Darius Garland (toe) — QUESTIONABLE
Projected Starting 5 (subject to change):
Miami Heat:
- Tyler Herro, G
- Davion Mitchell, G
- Andrew Wiggins, F
- Bam Adebayo, F/C
- Kel’el Ware, C
Cleveland Cavaliers:
- Darius Garland, G
- Donovan Mitchell, G
- Max Strus, F
- Evan Mobley, F
- Jarrett Allen, C
Broadcast Info:
- Tipoff: 7:30 PM EST
- TV: TNT, Max, TruTV & 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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pat has to step down.to many bad moves your fired gtfoh spo goes to gm or back to philipines.hire malone asap
Had and have no business in the playoffs in the first place, but for morale reasons or bad taste reason they didn’t lose one game because it’s a bad look to lose for better players I guess lmao. This is Mia future a perennial playin team (at least until they get rid of it) picking in the teens when you had a golden opportunity this year to get a higher pick in a talented draft class. In a few years when teams like the wizards (whom y’all can bash now but has best Mia this year and last year w/ quitter) will be better than Mia while they continue to push some bs about culture the bottom of the east and top has passed them by Indy/orlando last year Detroit this y
unfort u might be right.in a year or two could be the worse team
That’s why I always ask for an honest assessment of all our players. Holding onto marginal players and hoping they emerge just stops creating an upgrade to the roster.
Is there time to leave this valley of tears, and move to next one, or wait three more days?
Do it tonight,start rookies, hit rock bottom with loosing for 50, and move up from there.
The Heat are obviously not going to beat Cleveland 4 straight. Will winning 1 game make me feel better about this series? Absolutely not. As far as I’m concerned, let’s get on with the necessary business – starting to plan what moves are available in the offseason. We’ve actually seen seasons with worse records, but, to me, this has been the most tumultuous season in Heat history, even worse than LeBron dumping us at the last minute, leaving us with Napier.
Keep hope until the clock hits zero. But, gonna take a miracle, and I don’t believe in them.
al michaels did
That was an exception to the rule.
yankees comeback vs sox started with the dave roberts steal