It’s a rematch — in more ways than one.
When the Cleveland Cavaliers visit the Miami Heat on Wednesday night, it will be dejà vu as the teams just met on Monday.
Cleveland and Miami also faced off in the first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs as the Cavaliers swept the Heat in four games.
In fact, Cleveland had beaten Miami six straight times … until the Heat scored a hard-to-believe 140-138 overtime win on Monday.
The score was tied 138-138 with 0.4 seconds left in overtime. It seemed like the game was headed for double OT. Instead, Miami’s Nikola Jovic inbounded the ball, a Heat screen picked off De’Andre Hunter, and Andrew Wiggins dunked Jovic’s perfect lob pass to win the game.
“It was a hell of a play drawn up by (assistant coach Chris Quinn), an amazing pass by (Jovic), and I was there to finish the job,” Wiggins said.
The Heat are now 5-0 at home, and they are playing without their two injured All-Stars, Bam Adebayo (toe) and Tyler Herro (ankle).
Even so, the Heat lead the NBA in scoring, and they are getting contributions from just about everyone on their roster, including backup center Kel’el Ware, who had a career-high 19 rebounds on Monday.
“It shows how deep we are,” said Heat wing Norman Powell. “The way we play — fast, up-tempo style … We play super hard.”
Powell leads the Heat with 24.5 points per game, and that includes the game-high 33 he put up on Monday.
“It was an instant classic regular-season game,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, suffered a concerning injury on Monday as starting point guard Darius Garland apparently re-injured his surgically repaired left big toe in the third quarter, and he did not return.
“He took a fall,” said Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, who was ejected in the third quarter. “He couldn’t continue… Maybe I should have pulled him earlier. But I trust him. You have to defer to the player… If he’s out, we will have to reconfigure.”
The Cavs will indeed need to reconfigure, with Garland listed as out of Wednesday’s rematch with left great toe injury management. His presence allowed superstar guard Donovan Mitchell to play off the ball a bit more, and Garland’s quickness, vision and shooting ability balanced Cleveland’s offense.
With Garland is out, it puts more pressure on Mitchell, who played a game-high 41 minutes on Monday, providing 28 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists. For the season, Mitchell is averaging 30.4 points, 5.4 assists and 4.4 rebounds.
“We knew this was going to be a tough game,” Mitchell said. “We played back-to-back (Friday and Saturday) and then flew down here. We knew we would be tired as a team.”
Even so, the Cavaliers, who had their four-game win streak snapped on Monday, played hard as evidenced by 26 offensive rebounds to just 12 for Miami.
Atkinson, meanwhile, said he was upset because the third quarter featured 21 Heat free throws and only four for Cleveland.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that (type of disparity),” Atkinson said. “And I let (the referees) know that.”
–Field Level Media
