Battle-tested Miami Heat ready for top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers

CLEVELAND – Fifteen years after LeBron James left north-east Ohio to take his talents to South Beach, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat meet in the National Basketball Association (NBA) play-offs for the first time.

Miami locked up their berth with a 123-114 road victory over the Atlanta Hawks on April 18, becoming the first initial 10th seed to qualify through the play-in tournament.

They also tied a franchise record with their sixth straight play-off 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 on April 20 (April 21, Singapore time) in Cleveland.

“It’s validation for us to be here and everyone knows when you get to this point, anything can happen. For us, it’s understanding we’ve got four to seven more games and see what happens,” said Miami power forward Bam Adebayo, who had 17 points, 11 rebounds, five blocks and five assists at Atlanta.

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 overtime after trailing 98-92 with five minutes left.

Miami opened the play-in tournament on April 16 with a 109-90 win at the Chicago Bulls.

“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 champions the Boston Celtics.

Cleveland’s “reward” for finishing first in the conference was not knowing who they would face until 45 hours before the Game 1 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. It’s been excellent, but the biggest thing is the lack of days of preparation (for Miami),” said Cleveland centre Jarrett Allen.

“Teams that finished in the four-five 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 sit out the April 13 regular-season finale.

To compensate for the lengthy break, first-year coach Kenny Atkinson gradually increased the intensity at practice throughout the week. He said: “I don’t want to lose that edge.”

Cleveland’s home-court advantage also should help them from stumbling out of the gate. The Cavaliers went 34-7 at home, winning six more games than any other East team 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. There’s no way to know for sure how it will affect us until we play on Sunday,” said Cleveland small forward Max Strus. REUTERS