The Cleveland Cavaliers seek their fifth win in the last six games on Friday when they begin a four-game road swing against the Miami Heat.
Miami welcomes Cleveland to town with the Heat in search of their first win streak since Nov. 20 and 22. Since those wins — part of a stretch in which Miami won nine of 10, capped with a 129-96 blowout of Cleveland — the Heat have dropped four of six.
They recovered from a 144-129 loss Saturday vs. Indiana with a 112-103 win Wednesday at Toronto to head into Friday’s contest on a high note.
Caleb Martin recorded a double-double with 24 points and 12 rebounds, while Orlando Robinson snared a career-high 12 rebounds to go with 15 points in his second consecutive start.
Robinson moved into the starting rotation with Bam Adebayo sidelined due to a hip injury. Adebayo missed the games against Indiana and Toronto, his third and fourth absences in Miami’s last seven outings.
Adebayo did not play in the Nov. 22 rout of Cleveland. His status for Friday’s reunion with the Cavaliers is unclear, as Adebayo told reporters on Tuesday he would be reevaluated this week.
“Orlando, he makes you absolutely respect his fortitude and his grit,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said of Robinson stepping into the two-time All-Star Adebayo’s spot during Wednesday’s postgame press conference. “He is relentless with his work, with his approach, with his commitment to earn trust from everybody. And he does it with a competitive spirit.
“He gets better each month,” Spoelstra added. “And you saw that tonight. He had a lot of big plays: the rebounding down the stretch, his defensive detail work was really good.”
Defense was central to Miami’s win over Cleveland in the last meeting. It was the only game in the 2023-24 campaign in which the Heat have held their opponent to fewer than 100 points.
For Cleveland, it was one of four outings on the season in which it failed to record 105 points. The Cavaliers are 1-3 in those games, the most recent coming in a 103-95 defeat on Nov. 30 vs. Portland.
The setback to the Trail Blazers also marked Cleveland’s last loss. The Cavaliers bounced back with a 110-101 win at Detroit on Saturday and a 121-111 defeat of Orlando on Wednesday.
“What I learned from the Portland game to this one, we have to play hard for 48 minutes.” Darius Garland said in Wednesday’s postgame press conference. “Just try to hold the rope as long as we can, play hard for 48 minutes, and tonight that’s what we did.”
Cleveland weathered a 42-point effort from Paolo Banchero thanks to Donovan Mitchell’s 35 points and Garland’s 26 points and nine assists.
Mitchell’s 5-of-10 shooting from 3-point range and a 4-of-8 performance from beyond the arc by Max Strus, who scored 17 points, paced the Cavaliers to a 14-of-34 night overall from deep.
The 41.2 percent shooting effort outpaced Cleveland’s average of 34.7 percent from 3-point distance, ranked No. 23 in the NBA entering Thursday. Miami ranks No. 5 in the league at 38.5 percent shooting from outside but is allowing a 37.8 percent opponent output — fifth-highest in the NBA.
Cleveland is limiting opponents to 36.1 percent shooting from long range, good for 10th in the league.
–Field Level Media
