CLEVELAND — The Miami Heat has turned to the power of the three-pointer in order to survive life without injured stars Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.
But the Cavaliers (17-12) flipped the script, hitting 16 threes to defeat the short-handed Heat 105-94 on Monday night at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Miami (16-12) fell to 0-1 on its four-game trip.
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With the Heat packing the paint and working to limit opportunities around the rim as it usually does, the Cavaliers took advantage to shoot 16 of 36 (44.4 percent) from three-point range.
Veteran forward Kevin Love led the way with 23 points on 5-of-8 shooting from deep off the bench. All of his points came in the second half.
It marked just the fourth time this season that the Cavaliers have finished a game with 16 or more made threes. Two of them have come against the Heat.
The Heat still kept the game relatively close for most of the night, as it entered the fourth quarter trailing by just five points. But the Cavaliers pulled away in the fourth quarter, leading my as many as 16 points in the final period.
The Heat made 13 threes, but was outscored 17-5 from the foul line and committed 16 turnovers that Cleveland turned into 26 points.
Forward P.J. Tucker finished one point shy of tying his career-high of 24 points. He ended the loss with 23 points, nine rebounds, five assists and one block in 35 minutes.
Heat guard Kyle Lowry contributed 22 points, three rebounds and five assists.
With Tucker and Lowry combining to shoot 9 of 16 on threes, the rest of the Heat’s roster shot just 4 of 24 from deep.
The Heat continues its four-game trip on Wednesday against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Here are five takeaways from the Heat’s loss to the Cavaliers:
The Cavaliers continue to make a lot of threes against the Heat.
Cleveland entered shooting 35.3 percent from three-point range this season, which ranks right around the middle of the NBA.
But against the Heat this season, the Cavaliers have looked like one of the best outside shooting teams in the league.
Cleveland made 16 of 31 threes in a victory in Miami on Dec. 1 and followed up that performance by hitting 16 threes in Monday’s win over the Heat.
The Heat is 3-7 this season when its opponent makes 16 or more threes.
Tucker continues to take on and thrive in a bigger offensive role with Adebayo out.
On Monday, Tucker scored a season-high 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 shooting on threes. He also grabbed nine rebounds and dished out five assists.
With Adebayo unavailable as an offensive hub, more of the Heat’s offense is running through Tucker and he has looked good in that role.
Tucker recorded 22 assists over the last four games — four assists in last Monday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, eight assists in Wednesday’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks, five assists in Saturday’s win over the Chicago Bulls and five assists on Monday. Before this stretch, he had finished a game with more than three assists just twice this season.
Duncan Robinson made Heat history in Cleveland.
Robinson appeared in his 175th consecutive regular-season game on Monday, a streak that dates back to April 9, 2019. That broke the franchise record held by Glen Rice, who appeared in 174 straight regular-season games for the Heat during a streak that spanned from 1992 to 1994.
But it was otherwise a quiet night for Robinson, who finished with six points on 1-of-7 shooting on threes.
KZ Okpala remains an important part of the short-handed Heat’s rotation. Even rookie center Omer Yurtseven even played extended minutes.
Okpala logged first-quarter minutes as one of the first players off the bench for the third straight game on Monday. How noteworthy is that? Okpala has played in the first quarter of just four games this season.
With Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Markieff Morris and Caleb Martin out, Okpala has been called on to help fill the void and he has responded with some of the best basketball of young NBA career.
Okpala, 22, finished with three points, three rebounds and two assists in 17 minutes.
As for Yurtseven, he finished Monday’s loss with eight points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes.. He was forced to play more minutes than usual because starting center Dewayne Dedmon ran into early foul trouble with two fouls in the first 6:35 of the game.
Butler did not travel with the Heat and there’s no timetable for his return, but a return during the four-game trip has not been ruled out.
Butler missed his third straight game because of a tail bone contusion. He has actually missed seven of the past eight games because of the injury, returning to play and re-aggravating his tail bone contusion in last Monday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.
“I don’t know,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Monday when asked if Butler could return during the four-game trip that ends Sunday in Detroit. “We’re literally day to day. If something changes, it will change.”
The trip takes the Heat close to home when it takes on the Orlando Magic on Friday. While that presents a clear and easy opportunity for Butler to rejoin the team without having to take a flight, Spoelstra said Butler rejoin the Heat wherever it is at that point when he’s healthy.
“If it was somewhere else and he was healthy and we could find a way to get him here, it’s more about his health at this point,” Spoelstra said.
The Heat was also without Adebayo (thumb surgery), Martin (health and safety protocols), Morris (whiplash) and Victor Oladipo on Monday. Adebayo, Butler, Martin and Morris did not travel, but Oladipo is with the team on the trip to spend more with his coaches and teammates as he continues to rehabilitate from May surgery to repair the quadriceps tendon in his right knee.
