Fifteen years after LeBron James left Northeast Ohio to take his talents to South Beach, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat meet in the playoffs for the first time.
Miami locked up its berth with a 123-114 road victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, becoming the initial 10th seed to qualify through the play-in tournament. It also tied a franchise record with its sixth straight playoff appearance.
Miami’s next challenge is much tougher. The eighth-seeded Heat must knock off the top-seeded Cavaliers in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series. Game 1 is Sunday in Cleveland.
“It’s validation for us to be here and everyone knows when you get to this point, anything can happen,” said Miami power forward Bam Adebayo, who had 17 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks and five assists at Atlanta. “For us, it’s understanding we’ve got four-to-seven more games and see what happens.”
All-Star point guard Tyler Herro and small forward Andrew Wiggins approached triple-doubles against the Hawks while Davion Mitchell and Haywood Highsmith made several big plays off the bench as the Heat forced OT after trailing 98-92 with five minutes left.
Miami opened the play-in tournament Wednesday with a 109-90 win at Chicago.
“We’ve been battle-tested all year with ups and downs, winning streaks, losing streaks, games we shouldn’t have lost,” Herro said. “All of that built us up for that last five minutes (in Atlanta).”
While the Heat (37-45) stumbled to the 20th-best record in the NBA during the regular season, the Cavaliers (64-18) spent the entire winter atop the East and finished three games ahead of reigning champion Boston.
Cleveland’s “reward” for finishing first in the conference was not knowing who it would face until 45 hours before Game 1’s tip-off. The Cavaliers took two days off, then spent the past four working out at their suburban practice facility.
“Having a full week at home, that’s just unheard of,” said Cleveland center Jarrett Allen. “It’s been excellent, but the biggest thing is the lack of days of preparation (for Miami).
“Teams that finished in the 4-5 spots have known who they’re playing for a while and could watch as much game film as they need to, but we only get a limited amount of time to prepare.”
Leading scorer Donovan Mitchell sat out the Cavaliers’ last five games for precautionary reasons after spraining his left ankle on April 6, but has been declared fully recovered. Fellow All-Stars Darius Garland and Evan Mobley also opted to rest in last Sunday’s regular-season finale.
To compensate for the lengthy break, first-year coach Kenny Atkinson gradually increased the intensity at practice throughout the week.
“I don’t want to lose that edge,” Atkinson said.
Cleveland’s home-court advantage also should help it from stumbling out of the gate. The Cavaliers went 34-7 at home, winning six more games than any other East squad in their arena.
“We’ve had time to regroup and work on our mental focus and strategies, but it feels like it’s been forever since we’ve played a game,” said Cleveland small forward Max Strus. “There’s no way to know for sure how it will affect us until we play on Sunday.”
–Field Level Media
