Undermanned Cavaliers fall short late vs Heat on the road

Cleveland Cavaliers end win streak at three games

The Cleveland Cavaliers fall short against the Miami Heat, 119-115, on the second leg of a back-to-back series in South Beach. With another near-win, the young Cavs team remains in solo fourth place in the East with a 42-27 record.

Looking to ride the momentum from the spirited win over Miami just two nights ago, Cleveland threatened to pull away midway through the contest, building as much as a 14-point advantage in the third period but appeared to stagnate a little bit in the fourth quarter.

With star point guard Darius Garland already sitting out with a quad contusion, Jarrett Allen also suffered an eye injury off an inadvertent swipe from Heat big man Bam Adebayo in the pivotal final quarter of the tightly-contested game.

Donovan Mitchell picked up the slack with eight triples en route to 42 huge points, while swingmen Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro each added 16 markers of their own, but the Heat coming alive from deep and several late miscues cost them the lead, and eventually the game.

On the other end, Heat stars Jimmy Butler also erupted for 33 points, including the clutch jumper and free throws that effectively put away the Cavs.

The Cavs need to bounce back quickly

With both teams being lauded for being among the top defensive teams in the league, the game was expected to go down the wire as another grind-it-out affair, and that was what it was.

The young Cavs team had several chances to put the Heat away and were unable to hold on, but should have a short memory and look forward to building another winning streak in the final weeks of the regular season.

They should be haunted by the memory of last season’s late collapse that cost them barely missing out on a postseason berth, crashing out after two play-in tournament losses against the Brooklyn Nets and the Atlanta Hawks.

While the team is on pace to finish firmly among the top six teams with a guaranteed playoff berth, it is imperative to try and secure home-court advantage in the very competitive Eastern Conference. They are still 2.5 games ahead of the New York Knicks, and can still realistically challenge the Philadelphia 76ers for third.

The Cleveland Cavaliers will look build towards that as they travel to North Carolina for another set of back-to-back games, this time against the struggling Charlotte Hornets, the first of which tips off on March 12.