Mateo’s Hoop Diary: Heat beat Cavaliers at the buzzer

Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson said before the match that it wasn’t the same team his Cavaliers wiped out by a combined 122 points through four playoff games, and the Heatles proved his point by pantsing them minus their two All-Stars (Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro). Miami’s streak at home extended to 5-0

Cleveland boat raced the hosts in the first five minutes, forcing coach Erik Spoelstra to call a timeout after a 15-5 hole. Subsequently, the Jaime Jaquez Jr. show began, igniting the crew with drive-bys and kick-outs in the half-court, helping them cut the deficit down to five.

The defense then neutralized the Cavs to 32% shooting by staying at the hip on drives and helping promptly. Meanwhile, they kept attacking in sixth gear, racing down the court for shots to the body and from 3-point range. Norman Powell also added seven free throws, assisting in cutting off the flow for the Cavs by stopping the clock and making them check the ball in.

They went to halftime ahead 62-53. Powell led all scorers with 18 digits while Jaquez (7) and Kel’el Ware racked up the most rebounds.

Donovan Mitchell finally erupted in the third quarter, slicing through schemes, and the Heat’s transition defense slipped, giving up multiple treys as the Cavs only cut it to six. The Heat also broke out a zone, and on the other side, Ware blasted the interior thrice, and they triggered the bonus for the last seven minutes and change, taking 18 more free throws, making 17. On top of that, Wiggins added a transition strike and buried an up top 3-pointer.

The Heat went into the fourth quarter ahead by nine, while the Cavs were without Atkinson because he was ejected after receiving his second technical foul while Mitchell was at the line with 32 seconds left of the third.

Despite Mitchell making one shot in seven tries, the Heat’s pressure faltered down the stretch as the Cavaliers had them on the back foot after nailing seven 3-pointers, four of them belonging to Sam Merrill. Jaquez had to bail the out with a spin through the lane, making a floater to force over time.

It took the Heat putting them in a scramble with an elevator set design by assistant coach Chris Quinn. He set up Nikola Jović on a sideline out of bounds for a lob to Wiggins cutting through the middle unchallenged to win the game. He got loose by the screen that Davion Mitchell set for De’Andre Hunter. Later Spoelstra said “I’ve had that play on my card listed as CQ for four years. When it got to that point, Quinny said we should run that. I said, you know what, there’s no better person to diagram it than the one who came up with the thing.”

The final score was 140-138. The Heat had seven double-digit scores and took 41 free throws, making 36. Notably, Jaquez had a Herculean impact off the bench, dropping 22 points on 58.3% shooting, with 12 rebounds and seven dimes. Additionally, their half-court attack wasn’t as strong, but they were able to put up 104 points per 100 possessions, good enough for the 74th percentile, per Cleaning the Glass, and they improved to 7-4.

Powell joked after the game, “Wiggs turned back the clock a little bit,” and Spoelstra said Ware had the best night of his career.

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The Heat will play the Cavaliers again on Wednesday.