The Miami Heat got what many can call a statement win on Tuesday night. Beating a team that has been one of the brightest teams in the league this season, they went into the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse of Cleveland and handed the Cavaliers a defeat.
Now, this was important for several reasons. Coming off another head-scratching defeat on Sunday, one of a few this year already, the Miami Heat needed to bounce back in a major way.
There is also the finality of it all to consider and even for only “halfway” through the year, this is a team that sat a full 2.5 games ahead of them in the standings.
The “finality” part of it comes into play when you consider that at the end of the regular season, the Miami Het would want to make sure they set themselves up in an ideal position to be able to make a run through the postseason.
And lastly, there is the immediacy part of it all.
With this Cavaliers team being interestingly built, relying on two core bigs most times, the fact that the Miami Heat aren’t that big, and that this could be one of the teams in their way come the postseason, it was good to be able to see the Miami Heat, seemingly at their current peak, impose their style on a Cavaliers team, seemingly at their current peak.
The Miami Heat got a tough win on Tuesday and a much-needed one for several reasons. How they got it done though, was via grit, defense, and versatility.
You specifically look at Caleb Martin and how he performed on Tuesday. Though his shot-making was huge and much needed on Tuesday, that, arguably, wasn’t the biggest of his contributions.
On a night where it would have been logically understandable for the Heat’s lack of size to kill them, they came out to out-tough and outrebound the Cavaliers, 45-39.
And of those 45 Miami Heat rebounds, only two guys finished with 10 or more. That would, of course, be Bam Adebayo with his 11 boards, but he would be joined by Caleb Martin with 10 of his own.
That was crucial for the Miami Heat and key to them being able to win on Tuesday. That grit and versatility also showed up in other ways too, such as Jimmy Butler mauling bigger slower dudes, Dean Wade in example, with quickness, then finishing with brute strength.
https://twitter.com/BallyHEAT/status/1620586877718765569
That would be Bam Adebayo using his quickness and versatility to pick apart a Cleveland transition defense to take advantage of his preferred one on one matchup, eventually dunking on the head of Jarrett Allen.
Yea, things like that.
But that’s all it was, Miami Heat grit, defense, and versatility. That’s what allowed them to walk into the Cavaliers’ place on Tuesday night and walk out victorious.