Heat Rally Not Enough in Game Two Loss Against Cavaliers
After dropping Game One to the Cavaliers, Miami had to come into Game Two with a must-win mentality, hoping to steal one on the road against the top seed. Despite a late rally, the Heat came up short, falling 121–112. Tyler Herro led the way with 33 points, supported by Davion Mitchell’s 18 and Haywood Highsmith’s 17. Yet, Cleveland countered with a well-rounded effort, as four of their five starters scored in double figures. Led by Donovan Mitchell’s 30 points, and 20-point games from both Darius Garland and Evan Mobley.
Miami jumped out to a quick nine-point lead, but the Cavaliers responded with an 18-8 run. Two timely threes from Highsmith late in the stretch helped slow Cleveland’s momentum, but the Heat still trailed by one at the end of the quarter. The Cavaliers opened the second quarter hot, drilling four straight threes to stretch the lead to nine heading into a timeout. That didn’t stop anything as Cleveland hit seven more triples out of the stoppage. Created by a spurt from Max Strus and Sam Merrill, who combined for five of the 11 total threes made in the quarter, helped push the lead to 68-51 at halftime.
In the third quarter, both teams traded threes in a back-and-forth start. A late 8–2 run from Miami, led by Herro, trimmed the deficit to 13 at the end of the quarter, keeping it a reachable game. The Heat needed a fourth-quarter rally, and they got one. Davion Mitchell poured in 12 points, and strong team defense helped Miami outscore Cleveland 19–8, cutting the lead to just two with four and a half minutes remaining. Donovan Mitchell had the final say, scoring eight straight points to shut the door on a comeback and seal the win.
Miami came into the series a top 10 team in defensive rating, but has given up 120-plus points in both games of the series. Granted, Cleveland is the number one scoring offense in the league, but the defense has to step up and take control because the offense wasn’t the problem tonight. A key factor for Miami in this series was to dominate the boards, something that had hurt Cleveland in back-to-back playoff exits. So far, the Heat haven’t been able to dominate the rebounding battle at all, which has hurt them in these opening games. Miami comes back home for Game Three on Saturday in what has become the most must-win game of their season.
