After playing nine of their last 11 games on the road, the Miami Heat returned home to the FTX arena on Monday, only to find themselves dwarfed by the Denver Nuggets.
Although the final score doesn’t show the true nature of the defeat, the Heat were down by as many as 24 points in a game that they, practically, had circled on their calendars.
Hobbled with injuries for much of this season’s early stretch, Miami had been without one or both of their two leading scorers, Jimmy Butler (tailbone) and Tyler Herro (illness) in their previous two games.
Nonetheless, they will look to recalibrate themselves before hosting yet another strong opponent on Wednesday, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers have won 11 of their first 21 games and are currently tied for eighth place in the Eastern Conference. They’re undeniably one of the NBA’s top surprise teams this season, which can be attributed to their best start to the regular season since 2018.
This was, much notably, the final year of LeBron James’ second run in Cleveland.