Miami Heat: There is only one thing to say after this game, when’s Jimmy back?

The Miami Heat were set to complete the second leg of a home and home set against the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Monday. It would be a breeze, right?

The Miami Heat were coming off one of their most impressive wins of the season on Saturday in Miami during Dwyane Wade‘s three-day jersey retirement ceremony. It was during the actual game where Wade’s signature number “3” went up into the rafters that the Miami Heat came out and just routed the Cleveland Cavaliers in American Airlines Arena, putting up their most productive half of the year with an 82 point outburst during Saturday’s first half.

They used that outburst and the energy in the building for D-Wade to run away and towards a blowout win. In order to finish up a home and home set with the Cavaliers, the Miami Heat would need to travel to Cleveland on Monday to face them on their home floor.

Although it was certain to be highly contested, especially considering what happened to them in Miami just a few short days ago, it was also for that same reason supposed to be a pretty routine NBA victory for a clearly superior Miami Heat team, right? Wrong, all wrong.

It actually started out, expanded upon, and coasted all in the Miami Heat’s direction for much of the game, with them carrying a high double-digit lead all the way into the fourth quarter and 19 at that point to be specific. It all unraveled in the fourth though, as they were only able to put 12 points up on the board.

They were able to take the game to overtime off of a Kendrick Nunn bail out put back layup in the final moments, but that was just a delaying of the inevitable as the Miami Heat were obviously not destined to win this game. It was actually a pretty simple explanation after all was said and done.

What has killed the Miami Heat over the past few years has been the fact that they didn’t have a guy who could be the guy every night. Goran Dragic‘s game depends so much on drawing fouls while he is also a bit undersized for what he excels at, so that makes him a better 1b to 3rd option on a really good team, which tries to account for why he couldn’t be it. Jimmy Butler was the guy they had to go get to be that guy this past summer.

Well, the way that the team has been made over has seen guys take leaps by stepping into new roles and finding themselves within these new roles, newfound freedoms/opportunities, and/or simply while they were coming into being an NBA player as a rookie. This has sometimes allowed them to overachieve as a team, whether their guy in Jimmy Butler was playing or not, sometimes.

Monday was not one of those days and they missed him when they needed someone to stop the bleeding. Combine that with the fact that this team just has warts away from AAA and it was a recipe for disaster.

They will be back on the floor Wednesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but thankfully at home for this one. Perhaps Jimmy Butler will be ready to suit back up, which would help a ton but at least they will be in their place, which should help catapult them to a bounceback win.