The Spin: Cavs Can't Keep Up With Heat, Don't Take Lopsided Loss Too Harshly

Spencer Davies highlights five observations from the Cleveland Cavaliers' 129-96 loss to the Miami Heat.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had their four-game winning streak snapped in blowout fashion at the hands of the Miami Heat. Spencer Davies highlights five observations from the game.

Schedule Loss: Excuse Or Valid Reason?

Don't be a box score watcher in this one, please. A 12-point loss to the Sacramento Kings where nobody was even close to putting in effort was more concerning than a game where the Cavs were flat-out gassed, tired and outrun after a long night less than 24 hours earlier.

Any 30-point loss is typically ugly. The Cavs did not play a good game by any means, don't think I'm saying that. But in towing the line between real life and justification, you have to look at the difficulty of a road-home back-to-back in the first place. Throw in overtime, and that is a lot of minutes on players' legs to work on. 

“I think that probably definitely had a factor," said Evan Mobley, who finished with a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double. "Coming in late last night, the overtime game, extra minutes on our body. But that’s no excuse. Have to come out here and do our job.”

"Mentally, emotionally, physically, we just couldn't find it tonight," Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said with an upbeat tone. "Played a great game last night, obviously put and spent a lot of energy. We tried. We just couldn't find it tonight."

Ironically, the Cavs didn't even have a bad process offensively. They shot the ball well and, in possessions where they kept it clean, they had success. The team just was not able to get out to shooters defensively, particularly at the start of the game. 

“[The Heat] did a good job of getting out and attacking in transition, making the right play and then junking up the game by forcing turnovers and we kind of fell into that trap," Georges Niang said. "It was a long night. Those happen. Try to make them few and far between but I think we are going to continue to improve.”

Aside from Kyle Lowry going nuclear, the Heat bench impressed. 

Orlando Robinson was using his lower body to flat-out move would-be rebounders in the paint. He only had the rebounds he had on the stat sheet, but his box-out power was on full display. 

Jaime Jaquez Jr. was moving bodies with his frame too and scoring with ease. When you don't have the energy to match that, it's going to be a long 48 minutes. 

In all, the Heat took 11 more shots than the Cavs too, which is indicative of how much more energy they had than the wine-and-gold.

"We didn’t really get too many stops throughout the game," Mobley said. "Kind of playing slow with our pace. Not getting to where we wanted to get to. Just got to find energy and spark and we didn’t find that tonight... Gotta dig deep when we get tired. Not have that as an excuse. Go get some rest the next few days and enjoy Thanksgiving and get back to it."

"We were trying. We just couldn't keep up tonight," Bickerstaff added. "We don't make excuses, but it's the basketball reality that we live in. This was gonna be tough one coming back from an overtime game like we did last night. As much minutes as guys played, the emotional aspect of it too. I thought the guys came in with the right mindset and tried it, but we just couldn't find it tonight."

Niang agrees, although he seemed to take it a little more hard.

"I wouldn’t say you sense horrible things happening. Always want to have some fight and bounce-back," Niang said. "We were down however many guys but that shouldn’t stop us from continuing to play hard the whole game. Gotta go out there and battle. The league poses its challenges. Gotta go out there and be ready for all of them.”

"After a few minutes, I feel like with some of the guys, you could just tell," Mobley added. "A step behind. That’s when you have to dig deep and fight through the fatigue. But we just never got to that point.”

Nov 22, 2023; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley (4) drives to the basket against Miami Heat guard Kyle Lowry (7) during the second half at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse / Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

First Start For CPJ

Craig Porter Jr. has been the Cavs' story of the week with how much the team has relied on him. On Wednesday, he got the first start of his NBA career. It didn't begin as planned, with a turnover and missed shot. 

"I feel like I started off kinda slow," Porter said. "I feel like I was doing a lot of thinking more than just playing like I had been doing, made some costly turnovers and they got out to an early lead."

But as he has shown, slow starts don't faze him. He came back with a strong second quarter and got into the teeth of the Heat defense. He made plays for others and bounced back nicely.

"We picked it back up a little bit in the second half, but they weren't missing shots," Porter said. "After the first start, I feel like I did not too bad, but definitely can improve a lot."

Bickerstaff backed his rookie guard, who finished with 16 points, five assists, two rebounds and two blocks.

"Craig's been really, really good just overall for us,' Bickerstaff said. "What we're asking him to do is extremely difficult. To be a rookie, to play as many minutes as he did last night in the type of game that he did last night. And then, on a back-to-back, throw him in the starting lineup. That's extremely difficult to do. He's another one who gave it his best. He's not typically a guy who turns the ball over. So I think it just paid its toll on him tonight. 

"But Craig has been a great surprise for us. Competitive, knows his game, how to get to his spots. Just does a bunch of different things. He rebounds, he blocks shots. Craig's gonna be a good player in this league, and we're pleased and happy to have him."

Still A Lot To Like About The Week

Just because this game had an ugly result, it doesn't take away from how solid the Cavs have played since coming back from their long road trip out west.

"We'll throw this one out," Bickerstaff said. "We've been playing some really good basketball. We'll enjoy Thanksgiving, get back to work on Friday and get ready for Saturday."

“Gotta have amnesia in this league. It’s one game," Niang said. "Can’t let it happen twice. We have to learn from it. We have a big weekend. Another back to back. Surprising. Seems like that’s in our DNA this year and gotta be ready to battle with whoever we have out there.”

Mobley concurs: "We’re not harping on it or anything. Just scrap this one and move on to the next. Keep going from there.”

Welcome Back Vert

Caris LeVert didn’t waste any time coming back to the floor after missing two games with a sore left knee. He applied pressure on the rim, got to his spots and made things happen for him and his teammates. He’s got some of the filthiest right-hand shovel passes in the NBA while under the basket for sure. LeVert had 12 points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal in 18 minutes of action.

He didn't last long on Wednesday though, and it's not just because of his minutes restriction. In the third quarter after feeling like he got fouled on another Cavalier turnover, LeVert loudly made his case to the officials. 

He was ultimately whistled for a tech, but continued to make his case. That led to LeVert being ejected from the game with 1:07 remaining in the third quarter. 

With the Cavs down by 25 at that point, it was pretty much the final blow. 

Weird Bounces

In addition to the miscues in the first half, the Cavs just had some weird stuff going on. Max Strus nailed a three that should’ve counted, but didn’t because a Heat defender got tangled up with a big a split-second beforehand. 

Niang got called for a foul on what was a clear block on Jimmy Butler. When they’d get a stop on the Heat defensively, they’d have their hands on it but it would deflect into Miami’s hands in advantageous positions. 

Even on a jump ball that Cleveland won, Porter saved the ball to a battle where the Heat got an easy two with half the floor to work with. 

You know how some games just aren't your team's night? It felt like that was the case.