In the middle of the fight to avoid the East play-in, the Heat took a vital victory from their visit to Cleveland. The Florida team beat the Cavaliers 104-107 to reach a balance of 38-31, tying for seventh place in the conference with the 76ers and placing themselves just half a game behind the Pacers, rivals with whom they promise to have a tough race from now to the end of the regular league.
Spoelstra’s team was led by Jimmy Butler’s 30 points, but the big hero of the night for them was Terry Rozier. The shooting guard, scorer of 24 goals, took the team on his back in the clutch, adding several fundamental baskets such as the 3+1 that tied the match with a minute and a half left or the triple that would end up becoming the winning basket. This came with 15 seconds left and put the score at 102-105, and although the locals closed the gap shortly after, Rozier himself was in charge of widening the difference again from the free throw to force Cleveland to look for a miracle with a Garland’s long triple that didn’t go in.
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The victory takes on special importance for Miami when taking into account the large number of casualties with which the squad arrived at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Without Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson or Kevin Love, Spoelstra had to figure out how to make the most of his wardrobe, but he once again demonstrated his ability to make the most of the resources he has available to add far from home.
Bickerstaff also did not have all his men at his disposal, and was forced to improvise a rotation without Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Max Strus or Dean Wade. Given this context, the Cavs took refuge in the figure of an imperial Jarrett Allen, who with 25 points and 20 rebounds was the great dominator of the paint but did not find particularly successful teammates to help him lead the team to victory. Darius Garland, with 20 points and 9 assists, was their best ally, but those from Ohio ended up noticing the absences more and lost the opportunity to match the Bucks in the fight for second position in the conference.
(Cover photo: Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
2024-03-21 09:00:00
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