Heat vs. Cavaliers: Miami Goes Cold—Gets Torched by Mo Williams

Monday’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers had many Miami Heat fans (myself included) beginning to believe in conspiracy theories; as I wrote about in my recap of that game viewed here Heat vs. Cavaliers: Miami Was Robbed!. The officiating in that game was one of the worst and most lopsided jobs done by a group of officials I’d seen since Game 2 of the 1996 Eastern Conference Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic.

Last night’s game, while it had some moments of bad officiating (Dwyane Wade being tossed for arguing over an outrageous non-call late in the game being one of the few examples), was anything but.

In fact, it was a relatively well-called game.

The game began in a fashion no Miami fan had dreamed about when anticipating this contest all week. Cleveland looked far stronger and more focused right from the opening tip, jumping out to a 9-0 lead within the first four minutes.

Contributions during this 9-0 run came from four different Cavs. First, LeBron James sank a pair of free throws after being fouled by the Miami Heat’s small forward Jamario Moon.

This was followed by an Anderson Varejao jump shot assisted by the Cavaliers Delonte West, and then successive shots by the Cavs center, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and their point guard, Mo Williams; whose shot came from downtown.

The Miami Heat’s Head Coach Eric Spoelstra then called a timeout at the 8.14 mark, having watched his players fumble their way through the opening four minutes of play. During that span Miami players had turned the ball over three times, missed three shots, and committed two fouls.

Effectively, the game was over right there. In fact, it almost seems, looking back at the game in hindsight, a waste of time to have continued. For Miami would never gain the lead in this game.

The Cleveland Cavaliers did something that rarely occurs on a basketball court, especially in the NBA. They led from wire to wire.

The closest the Miami Heat came to the Cavs after this initial offensive burst would be six points, which they did four times, all coming in the last six minutes of the game; the first time after Wade had drained a three-pointer at the 5:42 mark of that period.

That frenzied fourth-quarter rally would fall short, however, as the Cavaliers would ultimately prevail over the Heat 99-89.

Unlike many past duels between LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, this win for the Cavaliers was not fueled by a stupendous offensive effort by "King" James. Instead, the Cavs relied mainly on his newest sidekick, Mo Williams, who ended the night with a game-high 29 points to go along with his 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

On Monday, Williams scored 15 of his 30 points in the last 7:14 of the 107-100 comeback win against the Heat. Last night was eerily similar in that respect, as Mo poured in 12 of his 29 over the final 7:12 of the game.

This outpouring included two clutch drives to the basket, and a three-point dagger putting the Cavs ahead 89-76 and effectively sealing the Heat’s fate.

While LeBron James didn’t put up his usual numbers, he did have an all-around brilliant game, recording his fourth triple-double of the season (21st of his career) with 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 12 assists. He also had a steal and a blocked shot to add to his statline.

Wade nearly recorded a triple-double of his own, scoring a team-high 25 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, and dishing out 12 assists to go along with his 4 steals. Other members of the Heat also had good games to keep the Miami franchise from being blown off the court by the Cavs.

Jermaine O’Neal contributed 19 points, Michael Beasley added 17 points and 5 rebounds, and Daequan Cook and Udonis Haslem each scored 10 points; with Udonis also snatching 7 boards.

Similarly, the Cavaliers had help in their win from more than just LeBron James and Mo Williams. Delonte West added 19 points and 6 assists, and Anderson Varejao tallied 12 points and 7 rebounds.

However, this night belonged to Williams. As LeBron James put it after the game when asked about Williams’ performance:

“Mo’s a great player. It’s no surprise to us what he can do out there. It’s kind of surprising to you guys because you’re not used to having two guys put up these kind of numbers on the same [Cleveland] team. It’s been a while, since what, Brad Daugherty and Mark Price?”

Dwyane Wade also weighed in on Mo Williams, stating, “Mo Williams went off for nine straight. That hurt us. You focus so much on LeBron and you’ve got another player that’s hurting you like he hurt us the last two times we’ve played them. That’s tough to overcome.”

The Heat did try to overcome Williams’s production though. At one point in the second quarter being down 40-20, the Heat clawed their way back to a 50-36 half-time deficit. They chipped further away at the Cavaliers lead in the third quarter, playing smart basketball and brilliant defense, bringing the score prior to the final period to 70-61.The fourth quarter has been where Dwyane Wade has shined in many of the Heat’s comeback victories over the past six years since the erstwhile Miami franchise wisely drafted him in 2004. Wade attempted to wield his late-game magic again last night, scoring 10 of his 25 over the first 6:18 of the quarter.

He also facilitated his teammates during this comeback attempt, dishing out 5 of his 12 assists in the final period. However, the blaze of his comeback attempt was extinguished with 50 seconds left in the game as Wade was ejected from a game for the first time in his career.

Michael Beasley’s jumper, assisted by Wade, at the 2:18 mark, had drawn Miami to within six of the Cavaliers for the fourth and final time of the game at 91-85. LeBron James then turned the ball over—losing it out of bounds—and there was real hope in the Miami Heat players’ eyes.

Daequan Cook, however, missed from downtown and Mo Williams grabbed the defensive rebound for Cleveland. James’ own missed shot from beyond the arc at 1:24 though gave the Miami Heat hope again.

In a series of attempts, Dwyane Wade drove to the hoop twice over the next 30 seconds or so, both times receiving what appeared to be fouls by the Cleveland players. Neither attempt was successful, with Jermaine O’Neal keeping the ball alive for the Heat the first time to give D-Wade his second chance.

Given that second chance, Wade slashed to the basket and tossed up an off-balance shot. There was definitely contact from a Cavaliers player, and while Wade’s shot didn’t fall, he did—very hard.

Play continued, as Eric Spoelstra ran screaming to midcourt, shocked beyond belief. This earned Spo a technical, and when D-Wade tried to plead his case to the officials as well, he received his second technical of the game

This effectively doomed the Miami Heat’s comeback chances as Williams sank both technical free throws to give him his 28th and 29th point and putting the Cavs up 93-85, and Wade walked to the locker room, sarcastically clapping at the officials while being heavily booed by the Cleveland crowd.

Wade said after the game about the sequence of plays and the officiating, “We felt we got some bad calls. Tempers got hot. I felt I got fouled and there was no call. So my temper got hot. I deserved the tech. That’s it.”

LeBron, answering a question about Wade being tossed had this to say, “My reaction? Great. That was good for us.”

It wasn’t the officials who lost this game for the Heat though. They lost this game for the same reason they lost the games to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Feb. 18 and the Orlando Magic less than a week later on Feb. 22; they allowed their opponents, the Cleveland Cavaliers, to shoot the lights out from downtown.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, showing their resilience, bounced back from their disappointing loss to the Boston Celtics by tossing in 10 of their 18 three-point attempts, shooting 55.6 percent from beyond the arc. Miami, in contrast, sank only 3 of their 15 shots from downtown.

Cleveland’s resilience and ability to bounce back from losses (they’re 12-1 following a loss this season) was explained by LeBron James when he said:

“It’s something we’ve been able to do this year. It’s something we really haven’t been good at in the past, but we’ve been able to bounce back from certain losses and games where we thought we could play a lot better. We’re able to come back and forget about it. It’s definitely positive.”

In contrast, Miami missed a chance to notch their first three-game winning streak since January, when they won three games against the Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks, and Washington Wizards between the 24th and 28th of that month. Instead, they bounced “forward” into another loss because they couldn’t find a way to stop the Cavs when they needed to most.

Simply put, Miami couldn’t defend the perimeter, and it forced them to rely far too much on making the three themselves just to keep up with Cleveland’s offensive onslaught, which they weren’t capable of doing last night.

Miami had come into this game with all the promise in the world. They were within a half-game of the Atlanta Hawks for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, and had hoped with a win and an Atlanta loss they would capture that seed last night.

Fate, it seems, had other ideas. Miami, of course, lost, and the Hawks came back from 11 points down against the Detroit Pistons to win the game over their opponent 87-83.

So, while Dwyane Wade had another dazzling game, his ejection, Mo Williams’ amazing night, and LeBron’s triple-double helped the Cavaliers to their 49th win of the season, while the Miami Heat lost their 29th of the year.

Cleveland now sports a 49-13 record (28-1 at home), and is atop the Celtics who are 49-14. Miami (33-29) dropped to a game and a half behind the Hawks (35-28) for the 4th seed, and only a game and a half ahead of the surging Detroit Pistons (31-30).

Game Note: Cleveland forward Joe Smith, who was re-signed by the Cavs earlier in the week, played for the first time for his new club, scoring nine points and receiving a loud cheer from the crowd as he checked into the game.