Cavs hand Heat worst-ever playoff loss, roll 124-87 for 3-0 lead in series
MIAMI AP Donovan Mitchell didn t have a great shooting day Darius Garland was in street clothes out with an injury And Cleveland rolled anyway moving to the brink of Round Jarrett Allen scored points De Andre Hunter added and the Cavaliers bullying Miami around all day handed the Heat their worst playoff loss with a - win Saturday to take a - lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series The Cavs took control with a - run early outrebounded Miami - and outscored the Heat - in the paint Our guys knew that was the key rebounding and winning the rebounding battle Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson revealed We really executed defensively Evan Mobley scored and Max Strus added for Cleveland Ty Jerome had points and assists in minutes he was plus- in those minutes and Mitchell scored on -for- shooting They didn t need more from him and didn t need anything from Garland their All-Star guard who was out with a sprained toe Look our guys really want this and it ostensibly looks like our guys don t Heat coach Erik Spoelstra declared But I know what our last six weeks have been like just to fight and scratch and claw to get into this Bam Adebayo scored and Davion Mitchell added for Miami The worst Heat playoff loss before Saturday was a -point defeat in Tournament of the NBA Finals at San Antonio That Heat club won an NBA title This Heat company is on the brink of being swept It s the th time that a Cavaliers club has taken a - lead in a best-of-seven series the other were all in the LeBron James eras in Cleveland and they all ended in - sweeps These Cavs will try to finish off a sweep of their own in Challenge at Miami on Monday It s the th time in NBA history that a group has taken a - series lead the first went on to win the series and Oklahoma City is the th and could oust Memphis later Saturday It was all Miami for the first minutes After that it was all Cleveland the Cavaliers taking full control of the battle over the next minutes with a - run Cleveland shot for during the spurt scoring on its first eight possessions of the run And it ended with five consecutive makes from -point range those coming in a span of just over minutes Just like that - Miami became - Cleveland We took the first punch Mobley stated And from there we just took the tournament over It was - at halftime and Cleveland missed its first eight shots of the second half But Miami scored only four points during that span wasting a chance Cleveland led - going into the fourth and that was it Clearly a very disappointing day Spoelstra reported
