Heat lose to Cavs: quick takes

Hey, it's Ethan Skolnik for Five on the Floor on the Five Reasons YouTube channel. I'm here with Alex Toledo. You can follow him at Tropical Blanket. You can follow me at Five Reasons Sports. And Ethan J. Skolnik. The Miami lose at home to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Got off to a first-half lead. Trailed by one at the half. And then a 13-0 run led by Donovan Mitchell to start the third quarter. And Miami never really got back in it. They kept getting within ten, but they couldn't make a big shot. And to me, the big story tonight, other than obviously Bam and Hero and Highsmith being out, Jimmy Butler just didn't have it. He didn't have it really on either end tonight. He seemed tentative in the paint. The big bodies seemed to be bothering him. He was passing up shots, and he was erratic. And, Alex, the thing is, like, the wings have played well. We've talked about it. Your phrase, wing stop. Caleb, Jaquez, Josh had a big first half tonight. But if you don't have Hero, you don't have Bam, and then you get that Jimmy, you're not going to beat a good team at home. And I thought that's kind of what happened tonight. Pretty much. Like, I think we've talked about it on five on the floor before, but when you have Bam and Tyler out and you're not hitting threes at a high clip, which is not necessarily one of your strengths anyways with this roster, like, good luck. Not only that, I didn't see the final tally, but I was keeping up throughout the game with their turnovers and points off turnovers thing, which I've been hammering forever on five on the floor as far as that being just a huge point, a huge indicator for the Heat and them, like, forcing their pace and playing into their strengths. I don't think they did that tonight. Like, I believe through three quarters, like, the Cavs were winning the turnover and points off turnover battle by a good amount. And I just think, like, when you have Jimmy play a game like that where he just looks not very engaged, felt like the times he did score was only if, like, he kind of had to. And then other than, like, when you actually needed him to go and take over, like, he gave you a couple of, like, flashes, right? But he never got into that mode that you needed him to, you know, when you don't have Bam and Tyler to, you know, help take the load off of him. Duncan did not have a night, did not have a night. He's been so reliable for them, you know, ever since he took over as a starter. And I think tonight was the worst, easily the worst game he's had all season. Like, he just was not felt whatsoever on the offensive side and even wasn't as active as he usually is, I think, movement wise. And so outside of that, I think Jaquez, like, had a good game, but there was points with turnovers where he had some rookie mistakes, which is fine. You know, he's allowed to have them every now and then just because he's, you know, a lot better at that stuff than other guys. He's still allowed to have them. And, you know, it just wasn't enough. The Cavs are a good team. I felt like they could have won this game despite everything, despite everything we just talked about if Jimmy would have just kind of turned up. Like, I think they were forcing the Cavs into weird possessions there, and they just weren't able to get, I think, Jimmy engaged enough. And outside of that, the threes weren't falling. Yeah, you mentioned Duncan. I mean, they've been so reliant on him, and you're right. He's been so consistent. They crowded him a little bit more tonight. I don't feel like he reacted well to it. The playmaking that we've seen from him in recent games was not there at all. Kyle had some good moments in the first half, but some sloppy stuff in the second half as well. There was that turnover that Garland turned into the end one in transition. That was pretty much the game. I'm not sure you get back into it. Anyway, I thought Caleb was pretty good tonight, and I thought Josh was pretty good tonight. Josh got into it and got the flopping technical and all that kind of stuff. But, yeah, right, exactly. But, again, it just comes down to this, okay, which is Jimmy's got to be better. He's got to be better consistently during this stretch where Bam is out. He's your superstar, and I know he's saving some stuff for the playoffs, but we haven't seen it, you know, in enough nights this year. And this reminded me a little bit of the Boston-Milwaukee games early in the year, and we were saying, well, he's just working his way into the season. You've got to go tonight. You had an off night last night, and he just looked off the whole night. Sometimes it's just that simple. Their best player, Donovan Mitchell, came out in the third quarter, took over the game, and Jimmy never did that tonight, and so the Heat lose. So the Heat fall to 12-10 on the season. They've got two games with Charlotte coming up. This is a time to get right. I don't know if we're going to see Bam anytime soon here or Tyler, so this group is going to have to find a way to get it done. Okay, for Alex Toledo, I'm Ethan Scola from Casaya Center. Miami Heat lose to the Cleveland Cavaliers tonight.