Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 113-98 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers (14-25) on Tuesday night at AmericanAirlines Arena:
— The Heat (22-18) has won a lot of games in the past month, but there haven’t been many blowouts. Tuesday was a rout.
The Heat has won five straight and 11 of its last 12 games, but Tuesday marked its first win of 15 points or more during that stretch.
In fact, it only marked Miami’s third victory of 15 points or more this season. For perspective, the team with the Eastern Conference’s worst record — the Detroit Pistons — has four such wins this season.
That’s because the Heat plays a lot of close games. Miami has played the second-most clutch games this season at 23, and seven of the 12 games during this 11-1 stretch have fallen in this category.
A clutch game is defined as one that has a margin of five points or fewer inside the final five minutes of the fourth quarter.
But there were no clutch minutes in Tuesday’s game.
The Heat led by as many as 22 points, and led by double-digits for the entire second half.
Jimmy Butler continued his impressive stretch with for Miami with a team-high 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting, to go with 12 rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Heat big man Kelly Olynyk recorded 17 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks and three steals.
The Cavaliers’ final lead of the game came midway through the first quarter. Cleveland shot 10 of 35 (28.6 percent) from three-point range in the loss.
Collin Sexton led the Cavaliers with a team-high 21 points.
Meanwhile, the Heat shot 49.4 percent from the field and outscored the Cavaliers 19-10 at the free-throw line.
— The Heat got star center Bam Adebayo back from injury, and he was able to reach the 30-minute thereshold.
After missing the previous four games because of left knee tendinitis, Adebayo was back in the starting lineup Tuesday against the Cavaliers. He finished with 14 points, nine rebounds, six assists and two blocks.
Adebayo was able to play 30 minutes, but Heat coach Erik Spoelstra worked to shorten his on-court stints in his first game back.
“There will be a lot of communication between myself, [athletic trainer Jay Sabol] and Bam,” Spoelstra said before Tuesday’s contest. “He easily could play over 30 minutes, but I’m going to try to limit those big blocks of segments. He will not play 12 straight minutes in this game tonight. If I can get him in and out quicker so he doesn’t have to deal with fatigue, I think that would be the appropriate plan and then we’ll just take it from there.
“He’s ready to go. He’s been ready for over a week. We all feel really good about this plan. He has been putting in a great deal of work behind the scenes and hopefully we can just put it behind us.”
— With Adebayo back, the Heat’s ever-evolving rotation again looked a little different on Tuesday.
Adebayo started alongside the Miami’s four other regular starters Kendrick Nunn, Duncan Robinson, Jimmy Butler and Kelly Olynyk.
But Okpala, who started in place of the injured Adebayo in the previous four games, remained in the rotation.
The Heat used a four-man bench rotation that included Goran Dragic, Okpala, Tyler Herro and Andre Iguodala. Gabe Vincent and Chris Silva entered in the final seconds.
Okpala scored five points and grabbed five rebounds, and his switchability and versatility on the defensive end was on full display. He guarded pretty much every position on the court, serving as Cavaliers guard Collin Sexton’s primary defender on some possessions and switching onto center Jarrett Allen on others.
With Okpala remaining in the rotation, center Precious Achiuwa did not play Tuesday. It marked Achiuwa’s second DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) of his rookie season.
Meanwhile, Okpala has now played in seven of the past eight games. It looks like he has earned a spot in the rotation for now after playing in just 14 of the Heat’s first 28 games this season.
— The Heat faced another struggling team, and again took advantage with its 19th consecutive win over the Cavaliers in Miami.
Tuesday’s matchup against the Cavaliers marked the Heat’s seventh straight game against a sub-.500 team (record at the time of the Heat’s game against each opponent). Miami improved to 6-1 during this stretch, with its last game against a winning team nearly three weeks ago — a Feb. 26 win over the Utah Jazz.
The Heat is 17-7 against sub-.500 teams and 5-10 against teams with a winning record this season.
The Cavaliers, which entered tied for the third-worst record in the Eastern Conference, have been among the NBA’s worst teams statistically this season. Cleveland entered with the league’s worst offensive rating, eighth-worst defensive rating and worst net rating.
The Cavaliers were also without forward Kevin Love on Tuesday because of right calf soreness. Love has played in just five games this season.
Tuesday also represented the Heat’s 19th straight win over the Cavaliers in Miami, which is the longest home win streak against any opponent in franchise history. The last time Cleveland earned a win in Miami came on Jan. 25, 2010.
The good news for Miami is its next three games also come against teams currently with a losing record — the Memphis Grizzlies and Indiana Pacers (twice).
— Heat guard Avery Bradley is close to a return, but he’s not ready yet.
Bradley, 30, was listed as questionable for Tuesday’s matchup against the Cavaliers because of a right calf strain that has forced him to miss the past six weeks of game action. That’s encouraging, considering Bradley had been listed as out for every game since sustaining the calf injury during a Feb. 3 loss to the Washington Wizards.
But Bradley was ruled out shortly before tip-off on Tuesday, as he missed his 19th straight game with the calf injury.
“I was surprised he was listed as questionable,” Spoelstra said of Bradley prior to Tuesday’s contest. “He hasn’t done a full-scale equivalent of a practice yet. But he is doing a lot of work. We’re all encouraged by the progress that he’s making. He’s not quite there yet.”
The Heat is right back at it Wednesday against the Grizzlies (9 p.m., Fox Sports Sun) at FedExForum on the second night of a back-to-back. Bradley’s status for that contest is still unknown, but Spoelstra’s statement on Bradley still waiting to go through a “full-scale equivalent of a practice” is not encouraging when it comes to the likelihood of a Wednesday return.
Bradley, who signed with the Heat as a free agent this past offseason, has played in just 10 games this season. He has missed 29 games because of injury and one because of a DNP-CD (did not play, coach’s decision) in the opener.
In the games that Bradley has played in this season, he has been a consistent part of the Heat’s bench rotation. Bradley, who was named to the NBA’s All-Defensive first team in 2016 and All-Defensive second team in 2013, has averaged 8.5 points while shooting 47 percent from the field and 42.1 percent on threes, 1.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 21.1 minutes in his 10 appearances (one start).
