Cleveland Cavaliers Get Annihilated by Miami Heat
The Cleveland Cavaliers suffered another bad loss of more than 20 points as they were defeated by the Miami Heat on Saturday.
Will the real Cleveland Cavaliers please stand up?
The tale of Jekyll and Hyde continued Saturday for this team against the Miami Heat. From start to the finish, the Cavaliers were outplayed. They showed little motivation throughout the entire game, and they seemed like they had more energy sitting on the bench and shaking the Heat player’s hands afterwards.
This now makes three games that they have lost by 20-plus points. The first came came against the Portland Trail Blazers on the day after Christmas when they lost by 31 points (105-76). Against the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 18, they lost by 34 points (132-98). Saturday, they lost by 21 points (122-101).
All teams have tough nights and games that they will throw in the trash, but the Cavaliers have had more than a few of those. Even in their wins lately, they have had to work much harder than they should have to.
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With all the talent on the team, they should be able to defeat a team such as the Orlando Magic by double digits instead of just six as they did on Friday. In my last article, I mentioned how the Cavaliers blew two 20-point leads against an average Dallas Mavericks team on Wednesday.
LeBron James sat out the game due to rest, but just having Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love should have been enough to defeat them–and they struggled.
Realistically, no player is going to be energized for 82 games. But when the playoffs are only four weeks away and the team is continuing to make mistakes they would make in November, it starts to become an issue. Once again, there was no ball movement and no transition or interior defense played at all.
The high pick and roll has been the biggest issue with the team, and the Heat wasted no time in running it with Hassan Whiteside and Goran Dragic. The Cavaliers are currently ranked 17th in the NBA in defending it.
Teams are scoring at a 38 percent frequency against them in that set, which equals out to 55.2 percent. That’s not good when opposing teams are scoring more than half of their points off of that. Dwyane Wade had been struggling with his shot in the past few games only scoring 30 points combined in his last two. He had 24 points on Saturday and reached 20,000 career points.
That makes him the 41st player in NBA history to do so.
In more of a moral victory, the Cavaliers clinched the Central Division title after the Indiana Pacers lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Before the game, I had one question that I wanted answered once and for all.
Are the Cavaliers going through the motions against lesser competition and raising their energy level up against playoff teams, or are they potentially in trouble? I received my answer quickly in the first quarter. The team might be in trouble after that performance.
The Heat are a team they might face later in the playoffs, and for whatever reason, the Cavaliers have trouble winning in Miami. They are 0-3 there with James back, and have lost 11 straight games there dating back to 2010.
James even mentioned how much of an issue it was to Brian Windhorst of ESPN, ” The way they’ve beat us here is a little concerning if we meet them in the playoffs. I think we’ll be ready for it more.”
It is said that in order to overcome a fear, you must face it. So for the Cavaliers to potentially get out of this funk against the Heat, a second-round matchup would be ideal, along with a series win. This is a game that should be tossed into the Atlantic Ocean in Florida and never seen again.
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They have a chance to redeem themselves on Monday against the Denver Nuggets. Will the loss on Saturday motivate the team to play at the top of their game or will they struggle against a bottom-tier team and possibly lose? My next question is hopefully answered with a better effort and win.