Cavs look to rebound in rematch vs. Warmth

It is a rematch — in additional methods than one.

When the Cleveland Cavaliers go to the Miami Warmth on Wednesday night time, will probably be dejà vu because the groups simply met on Monday.

Cleveland and Miami additionally confronted off within the first spherical of the 2025 NBA playoffs because the Cavaliers swept the Warmth in 4 video games.

In reality, Cleveland had crushed Miami six straight instances … till the Warmth scored a hard-to-believe 140-138 additional time win on Monday.

The rating was tied 138-138 with 0.4 seconds left in additional time. It appeared like the sport was headed for double OT. As an alternative, Miami’s Nikola Jovic inbounded the ball, a Warmth display picked off De’Andre Hunter, and Andrew Wiggins dunked Jovic’s excellent lob cross to win the sport.

“It was a hell of a play drawn up by (assistant coach Chris Quinn), a tremendous cross by (Jovic), and I used to be there to complete the job,” Wiggins stated.

The Warmth at the moment are 5-0 at dwelling, and they’re enjoying with out their two injured All-Stars, Bam Adebayo (toe) and Tyler Herro (ankle).

Even so, the Warmth lead the NBA in scoring, and they’re getting contributions from nearly everybody on their roster, together with backup heart Kel’el Ware, who had a career-high 19 rebounds on Monday.

“It exhibits how deep we’re,” stated Warmth wing Norman Powell. “The way in which we play — quick, up-tempo type … We play tremendous laborious.”

Powell leads the Warmth with 24.5 factors per sport, and that features the game-high 33 he put up on Monday.

“It was an immediate basic regular-season sport,” Warmth coach Erik Spoelstra stated.

The Cavaliers, in the meantime, suffered a regarding damage on Monday as start line guard Darius Garland apparently re-injured his surgically repaired left large toe within the third quarter, and he didn’t return.

“He took a fall,” stated Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, who was ejected within the third quarter. “He could not proceed… Perhaps I ought to have pulled him earlier. However I belief him. It’s important to defer to the participant… If he is out, we should reconfigure.”

The Cavs will certainly must reconfigure, with Garland listed as out of Wednesday’s rematch with left nice toe damage administration. His presence allowed celebrity guard Donovan Mitchell to play off the ball a bit extra, and Garland’s quickness, imaginative and prescient and capturing potential balanced Cleveland’s offense.

With Garland is out, it places extra stress on Mitchell, who performed a game-high 41 minutes on Monday, offering 28 factors, 15 rebounds and eight assists. For the season, Mitchell is averaging 30.4 factors, 5.4 assists and 4.4 rebounds.

“We knew this was going to be a troublesome sport,” Mitchell stated. “We performed back-to-back (Friday and Saturday) after which flew down right here. We knew we might be drained as a crew.”

Even so, the Cavaliers, who had their four-game win streak snapped on Monday, performed laborious as evidenced by 26 offensive rebounds to simply 12 for Miami.

Atkinson, in the meantime, stated he was upset as a result of the third quarter featured 21 Warmth free throws and solely 4 for Cleveland.

“I am undecided I’ve ever seen that (kind of disparity),” Atkinson stated. “And I let (the referees) know that.”

–Area Degree Media