Mateo’s Hoop Diary: “It shouldn’t have been like this, I know that for damn sure”: The Heat were swept and humiliated by the bloodthirsty Cavaliers in the season finale

Pat Riley sat near courtside, looking as if he’d seen a ghost, but he was eyeballing the Heat’s corpse on the court named after him. His expression was similar to Vito Corleone’s when he told Bonesera, “Look how they massacred my boy.”

They quit early into the second quarter because they were a team that didn’t deserve to share the court with Cleveland as they went down 45 points with 80 seconds to go before intermission. It was likely the sorriest performance by a home team in an elimination game that all 19,000+ fans present will ever see.

Darius Garland was absent for the Cavs again (toe injury), but it wasn’t felt because the team was as loaded as a fleet of warships headed for conflict. 

Jarrett Allen was the best big man on the floor by far. He led his squad with cuts plus putbacks, and all six of his steals came in the first half. Donovan Mitchell sprayed four triples. The rest of their teammates converted 51.5% of attempts. 

The Heat tied their lowest-scoring half of the season (33), and it was the third-largest difference at halftime (39) in playoff history. Yet the Cavaliers kept lashing, even against the background players, raising their lead to 60.

Inexplicably, the fans stuck around for the third quarter to witness Ty Jerome put the Cavs ahead by 48 with a 36-foot pull-up shot to end the period. They started leaving about four minutes into the fourth when they could’ve gotten an earlier headstart on traffic. 

Tyler Herro only scored in the game’s first minute and missed his next nine shots in a row. Bam Adebayo was a JAG. And Nikola Jović’s 24 digits were an afterthought. 

Coach Erik Spoelstra said the playoffs were an invaluable experience for Kel’el Ware before tip-off. Yet it felt as useful as making a cruiserweight bulk up to face prime Mike Tyson. After the game, Spoelstra congratulated the Cavs, and said he hoped his players got better from the experience. “Damn, it was humbling… We’re as irrational as we usually are, thinking that we have a chance to win this series, and they showed us why we weren’t ready.”

Herro said the consecutive home losses were embarrassing and that there’s “no real consistency in our play.” Adebayo said there would be a lot of changes over the summer.

The only thing anyone with rooting interest on the Heat side could look forward to is Riley’s end-of-season presser. 

The Cavaliers will carry their bloodlust into round two against the winner of the Indiana-Milwaukee series. The Pacers are up 3-1. It will be the Cavs’ first test of the postseason.