Cavaliers VS Heat: Can Miami make massive upheavals? Keys to the series, calendar and prediction

The seeded of the eastern conference, the Cleveland horsemen, will face the eighth seeded Miami Heat, who Advanced out of the game tournamentIn the first round of 2025 NBA Playoffs. This marks the first time that the two franchises will compete in the playoffs. Which is good because they did not really have Nothing In common So far.

What we know of the riders

After missing it to a slugfest of seven games of seven games with The Magic before being played 2 by the possible Celtic champion, the Cavs have entered this season with reason to believe. Of course, this would require healthier seasons of stars Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, who missed 84 games combined in 2023-24, and the new head coach Kenny Atkinson finding new ways of reaching the more effective offensive production of the list than the predecessor JB Bickerstaff. If everything broke well, Cleveland could be pretty good!

Uh … everything broke well. As, Really, Really RIGHT.

The Cavs opened the season with 15 consecutive victories And I never looked back, unleashing on a 64-18 file – the highest victory total of any Cleveland team without LeBron James – and the seeded n ° 1 in the East.

They did Get better health: from Mitchell and Mobley, who will probably win all-NBA recognition; de Garland, who reminded those who had demoted him during an injury campaign, that he could be The most underestimated star in the league; And from Ty Jerome, who has passed his first three professional seasons as a rebounding marginal player from one team to another, who missed almost all last season with an ankle injury, and who flowed this season in one of the best rescue guards in the NBA, a legitimate candidate for the sixth man of the year.

Atkinson did Rave the Cleveland offensive, moving Mitchell and Garland out of the ball more frequently, taking advantage of their severity of shooting and opening driving and cups wider while diverting certain representatives on the ball elsewhere – notably Mobley, whose jump on the offensive side has transformed it into one of the world's best players in the League. This worked: Cleveland led the NBA points scored by possessionaligning one of The most effective offenses of the last 50 years.

They were also balanced: with the defensive candidate of the player of the year Mobley and the internal deterrence eternally disinpitated ganglet off the way, the cavs boasted with a Top-eight defense. All this is added to excellence; Cleveland finished with the 13th the highest margin of victory in the history of the NBA.

For six months, the Cavs checked each box, including a Elite record against good teamsWith divisions of their season series against Boston and Oklahoma City. Everything points to them as a championship caliber team. All that remains now is to prove it.

What we know about heat

Well, they spent most of the first 3 1/2 months of the season in a Spiritual tables, ladders and chairs correspond to their best playerWhich was not particularly fun. Then, after exchanging Jimmy Butler, the Heat has lost 17 of their next 21 games, including a sequence of 10 consecutive defeats – the franchise of the franchise The longest slip in 17 yearsSince Before Erik Spoelstra took the clipboard from Pat Riley, with a Frankly incredible number of blown tracks.

It was not particularly fun either.

Given how appropriate the bottom of the East, even, even this horrible section was not enough to completely flow the heat … which offered Spoelstra and its team of Méli-Mélo of retained of the era of finals and new post-Jimmy arrivals to meet.

Miami took advantage of a friendly closing slate, with Linchpin All-Stars Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo leading an 8-4 race in the last 12 games of the regular season. The heat hampered the Taurus without hassle In Chicago during their first game game, behind 38 of an unhindered herro … and survived a lead in 17 points on Friday in Atlanta, thanks to a heroic performance in overtime of Davion Mitchell – a team from Sacramento who had undergone the movements of a team of Raptors Under Warming, provoked Jimmy's ban for a Monster at five teams, saved the friggin season:

The heat, which spent the first five months of the attacking season, scored nearly 122 points by 100 possessions During their last dozen games. They have Adebayo who directed a defense that ended the regular season ninth of the points authorized by possessionand who hugged a quasi-five level With Bam, Davion Mitchell and Andrew Wiggins on the ground together. And they have spoletra, always one of the most meticulous game plans in the league, with eight or nine guys in whom he has confidence.

I'm not sure it's enough to fear in one of the best regular season teams that we have seen for ages. Be honest, however: are you sure it is not?

Tête-à-tête

Cleveland won the season series, 2-1. A Miami victory came back in DecemberWith the butler in uniform, Herro on 34 and the heat making more than 3 points than the Cavs – one of the Just 23 games This season during which Cleveland has made fewer triples than his opponent.

Cleveland January victory came in the middle of the Jimmy inconvenience. Only Dadline competition after trade I saw Miami erase a deficit of 17 points in the first half and lead half the fourth quarter… only so that the Cavs recharge behind a small ball look who put Allen on the bench in favor of Running Mobley at 5 alongside De'Andre Hunter and Max Strrus with Garland and Mitchell in the Backcourt. This group torn off a sequence of 12-2 to close it, altering a triple “If-Heel-tas-Tas-Sideline” by Duncan Robinson to finish a five -point.

A victory is a victory … Although you imagined that it was a little too close to the comfort of Atkinson, and perhaps the kind of finish on which the heat has the impression of being able to rely when they prepare to try to come out which would be a huge upheaval.

Match to watch

Bam against Mobley

Adebayo and Mobley are the Queen-We-TChe pieces for their respective teams: interior defenders capable of going to the perimeter against any ball handling without conceding anything; The offensive poles that can operate from the elbows and trigger dribbles or turn, compete and attack; The most attractive responses of coaches on the best way to maximize their own property and explode opponents. They will often keep themselves, as they frequently did During their regular season games. (They will also keep everyone … which is somehow the point.)

Mobley does not have to dominate the match for Cleveland to win the series. Continue quietly to be an aid to elite weakness, a high -efficiency of secondary offense inside the arc, a complementary facilitator and a fairly good option on a ball to keep Adebayo below its seasonal averages should be good enough. (Some 30 and 15 games do not hurtHowever.)

But if that bows in the other direction – if Bam is able to use his strength and his physics to dislodge the Reedier Mobley when he has the ball; If he is able to splash a few sweaters when Mobley plays him for the reader; If he is able to show that heNot a promising intruder, is always the most versatile and most virulent defensive man in the game – so Miami's extremely thin chances of pulling the upset figure to improve.

Queue

Cleveland riders

Unsurprisingly, Mitchell-Garland-Mobley-Allen is the most frequently used quartet in Cleveland in the fourth quarter. The Cavs dominated the opponents by 23 points in 98 minutes of final frame With the four nucleus on the ground. (Why so little? The fact that Cleveland spent more time this season At the top of 20 points or more That anyone outside Oklahoma City probably has something to do with it.)

Atkinson has a lot of options to choose for fifth place. Jerome could adapt the bill if Cleveland needed another ball of the ball. Max Strus, a veteran of an NBA final takes place during his stay in Miami, drew 38.6% deeply this season, and can play larger than its defensively size and on glass. Isaac Okoro and Dean Wade are the best defensive options of Cleveland's attack point against the guards and the large wings, respectively, and can eliminate the shots of the perimeter (although the opponents will probably make it prove it in the clutch). De'Andre Hunter – imported from Atlanta to the February commercial deadline, with an average of 14.3 points and 4.2 rebounds in 25 minutes per game as CAV, on Sterling 49/43/82 SHOOTING FLTTS – could be the cleanest option, as the best size, athletics and shooting amalgamation.

Miami Heat

The range of five men from Adebayo, Herro, Wiggins, Davion Mitchell and Haywood Highsmith – A 3 -foot wing 7 and D with a wingspan of 7 feet – played – played – Just 15 minutes from the fourth quarter in three games during the regular season. He recorded 16 minutes combined in the fourth And over time In the two game games alone.

SPO has other options that he can reach: Duncan Robinson or Alec Burks, if he wants to obtain more fire on the ground; Kyle Anderson, for defensive versatility and another pair of stable hands on the ball; The Kel'el Ware recruit, if the alignment with two Bigs of the Cavs creates problems of shift on the glass and inside. The end of game game towards Bam-Herro-Wiggins-Mitchell Highsmith in the two biggest competitions of the season could however offer an indication of the way Spoelstra has become with a construction that puts four absolute dogs which can dribble, move the ball and pull (finally, in a way, in the case of BAM) around Herro; Look for this to be Miami's favorite configuration when it matters most.

Prediction: Cavaliers in five

The Heat has done commendable work to withdraw from their post-Jimmy tails flesh and win two game games on the road to make the playoffs clean. When it comes to aligning them against this Cavs team, however, all this commendable work will buy them is a Gentleman sweep.

Paris Ribs in series

(Via betmgm))

Cleveland Cavaliers (-2500)

Miami Heat (+1200)

Series schedule (all time is)

Game 1: Sun, April 20 @ Cleveland (7 p.m., TNT)

Game 2: Mer., April 23 @ Cleveland (7:30 p.m., NBA TV)

Game 3: Sam., April 26 @ miami (1 p.m., TNT)

Game 4: Mon, April 28 @ miami (TBD)

* Game 5: Sea., April 30 @ cleveland (TBD)

* Game 6: Ven., May 2 @ miami (TBD)

* Game 7: Sun, May 4 @ Cleveland (TBD)

* If necessary

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