Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson understands the long-term benefits of his Eastern Conference No.1 seed Cavaliers completing a first-round sweep of the eighth-seeded Heat in Miami on Monday.
Cleveland comfortably protected home court in the first two games, then motored to a 3-0 lead by hammering the Heat 124-87 on Saturday when the series shifted to Miami.
With bigger battles looming, the Cavaliers know the value of staying fresh and avoiding the wear and tear of a needlessly long opening-round series.
“These guys (Heat) have been on the road and we have a freshness advantage,” Atkinson said. “That’s what you want to have going forward … if you end up going to a Game 7 with a team, it’s going to affect you in the next round. The sooner you can end a series, the better.”
Cleveland, remarkably, pulled off the Game 3 blowout with Darius Garland in street clothes due to a sprained big toe on his left foot and Donovan Mitchell being held to 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting. Mitchell (24.3 points per game) and Garland (24.0 ppg) lead the Cavs in scoring in this series.
Cleveland’s depth and balance was on display as several players stepped up to the plate, led by Jarrett Allen (22 points), De’Andre Hunter (21), Evan Mobley (19) and Max Strus (18).
As good as that frontcourt quartet was — and as easily as the Cavaliers romped in Game 3 — Atkinson expects a closer contest next.
“Listen, this is the Miami Heat,” he said. “Because of who they are, their character, their program, their coaching, the players they have, I expect Game 4 to be a tight, tight battle.”
The 37-point margin was Miami’s largest postseason defeat, surpassing the Heat’s 36-point loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals.
“It’s embarrassing, flat-out,” said Miami star big man Bam Adebayo, who had team-highs of 22 points and nine rebounds. “There’s no point looking at film at this point. Scratch this game, and you’ve got to move onto Monday.”
The Heat regrouped after that one-off disaster 12 years ago, going on to edge San Antonio in Game 7 to win their second successive NBA title.
They will need a miracle to replicate anything close to that effort, given no team has won a seven-game series from 3-0 down.
Adebayo isn’t waving the white flag, though.
“I’ve been part of a team (Miami vs. the Boston Celtics in the 2023 Eastern Conference finals) that was up 3-0, and in the blink of an eye we were going into a Game 7,” he said. “Obviously there’s still a chance. As captain, you know me, I’m going down swinging, I don’t care. We’re going to ride it till the wheels fall off.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra admitted his team just had one of those nights when, after a bright start, everything snowballed once the situation started turning bad.
“We just laid an egg,” he said. “A big part of it was Cleveland. We jumped on them at the start of the game, then they just took control of it from there, and it became an avalanche going the other direction … our guys really want this, it probably looks like our guys don’t, but I know what our last six weeks have been like, just to fight, scratch and claw into this.”
–Field Level Media
