Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat get stunned at home by short-staffed Cavaliers

A slow offensive start didn’t slow the Heat from taking a 16-point lead in the first half of Max Strus’ return to Miami. Early, Cleveland’s Darius Garland picked up four fouls in six minutes and was neutralized until halftime. Strus fired blanks. Donovan Mitchell was held to one of five makes as he settled for jumpers. And the Heat’s Josh Richardson carried the offense until intermission against the undermanned Cavaliers.

But getting stunned by the zone, plus an inability to defend the arc and prevent dribble penetration, erased the Heat’s lead. Just in the second quarter, it conceded 36 points on 58.3% shooting. Keep in mind, Cleveland was without Evan Mobley, who is its top big and defender, and was absent the services of bench spark plug Caris LeVert.

Jimmy Butler missed a gifted wing triple and two jumpers in front of Tristan Thompson, who forced him to pick up his dribble in frame two. Duncan Robinson bricked three trifectas, two of which were weakly contested. And the Heat had suffered through 13 second-chance points because the Cavs got nastier on the glass.

Craig Porter Jr., one of the undrafted prospects the Heat worked out in the summer, sprayed eight points attacking the rim and pulling up 19 feet away when Jaime Jaquez Jr. got pinned to a screen by Thompson.

By halftime, the Heat surrendered 13 fastbreak points and 10 more after turnovers. Without Richardson’s contributions, the degradation would have commenced in the opening interval, likely before the late fans sat down.

Then Mitchell seized the third quarter with a bombardment of triples and a transition layup to give the visitors a 14-point advantage. The Heat could never recover from that flurry because it turned over the rock seven times in the period, and it uselessly over-helped off the wings and corners against other Cavaliers.

JJJ logged six points in the latter stages of the third when the Heat cleared out for him, but after him, Kyle Lowry was the next impactful Heatle, and he was only attacking from the outside.

In the fourth quarter, Caleb Martin spun past Porter in the lane, splashed a corner triple in his face and scored on Jarrett Allen at the cup. Love converted a few trays, too. And Butler had a tip-in and a roll through the middle, but it wasn’t enough.

When the Heat showed progress, the Cavaliers silenced them with a bucket or trip to the line. Miami couldn’t stop the ball, even when Georges Niang put it on the floor twice.

The dagger came with about 90 seconds left, following Dean Wade’s missed corner banger. Allen flailed his arms for the ball but smacked it back toward Wade, who handed it to Mitchell. From the wing, he broke down JJJ for a four-foot layup that put Cleveland up 11 points.

The Cavaliers won in Miami 111-99. Twenty-two of its points came off Miami’s turnovers, 23 were on the break and it collected four loose balls to zero.

At the postgame presser, coach Erik Spoelstra said his group wasn’t sharp with the rock. “Credit [to] Cleveland, but we were bobbling mis-dribbles, mis-catches, [we were] careless with the ball right out of the gate, even if we didn’t turn it over. That kind of set the tone for the game.”