Miami HEAT: No lead is safe; Cavs capitalize in Miami | Five on the Floor

Welcome to Five on the Floor, a daily insider show on the Miami Heat and the NBA, featuring Ethan Skolnick, Greg Sylvander, and Alex Toledo, plus others from the Five Reasons Sports Network. Welcome back to another postgame edition of Five on the Floor. I'm your host, Greg Sylvander. Today's floor plan, tonight's floor plan with me. We have a new cast of characters, fresh voices, fresh perspective, which is very much welcome on this program, Mateo Mayorga. We just had him on recently for a really cool Pat Riley episode. Check that out. He has a three-part series on FiveReasonsSports.com, and then you can also find Eternal on our playback channel. He is front and center, running point guard on all of our projects there, so shout out to him for being on the show as well. The floor plan, the Miami Heat squander a big lead. Granted, it was early in the game, but squandered a big lead, lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, 1-11-99 at home. This was not a pretty game by any stretch. There was a lot of really ugly play along the way. We're going to get into every aspect of all of that, but before we dive into any of that, we're going straight into the Rock Esports Gamer of the Night. And now on Five on the Floor, it's time for the Gamer of the Night, sponsored by Rock Esports Center, the place to eat, drink, and play all day. Post your next birthday party with them. Located at 15305 South Dixie Highway in Palmetto Bay. They've got a 5,500-square-foot state-of-the-art center equipped with all the high-end power. Play all-day passes available for just $25, but if you mention five reasons, it's just $20. So mention five reasons or five RSN, you get to play all day for $20. And now, the Gamer of the Night. I know that I'm supposed to pick a Cleveland Cavalier, but I'm not. Shout out to Kevin Love. Came in, and he was one of the bright spots in an otherwise ugly game. 14 points, 12 rebounds, 5 of 9 from the field, hit four threes, was one of only three guys off the bench. Shout out to Kevin Love, but otherwise, this was a really rough game. Mateo, I'm coming to you first here. This offense and the fact that the bottom falls out and they lose leads, we haven't had you on to really talk about this. So I'm interested in your perspective because I know that you catch a lot of other teams as well as the Heat. Is this pattern that Miami has where they lose big leads often, and sometimes they're late in games, but today it was just another game where they lost a big lead and then end up basically not being able to play catch-up. Do you see that throughout the league, or is this a Heat-specific thing? I haven't dove into the data, so just eye-test whatever your perspective is. I'm interested how you feel about the Heat's particular collapses when they get these big leads. This is not a singular Heat problem. This is something that teams experience all across the league because the three-point shot is such a great equalizer in basketball now, and it's just so hard to cover so much ground because of it. Now today, the Heat got decent guard play out of Larry. He had 17 points on 46% shooting. You know, you usually don't get that out of Kyle Lowry at this stage in his career, but Greg, the reason how I saw the 16-point lead being squandered is because of an inability to protect the three-point line, and Cleveland also went to a zone in that span. What we also saw in that second quarter, it laid in that Cleveland just hammered away at the interior. They were boarding for some second opportunities, and Sam Merrill just lit it up from deep. Donovan Mitchell came out like a prizefighter at the beginning of the third quarter, scoring 12 of their 14 points before a timeout that really put them over the edge, and the Heat never really recovered from this deficit. It was very disappointing because guys were over-helping off of the wings and off of the corners unnecessarily, and that's just tough because that's just really beating yourselves. The Cavaliers were undermanned and without some key players tonight, and this now shapes up to me as one of the Heat's worst losses of the season right up there with Brooklyn, Chicago, and Indiana without Tyrese Allenburton. I think that's a great point. We'll get into the injury report later and go over who was missing on both sides and who might be missing as Miami looks ahead to Charlotte, but before we get there, just to reference some of the final numbers that are coming from cleaning the glass, the Heat ended up with 99 points per 100 possessions played. That's 10th percentile in the league. They had an effective field goal percentage of 51.8%. That's 36th percentile, turnover percentage of 18. That's 17th percentile, and free throw rate, 11.9, 12th percentile. All of that is just awful, disgusting stuff. They're not getting to the paint eternal. I know that we simplify this sometimes and say they just got to make shots, but this is a little different to me because today, the shot distribution, which I'll get to those numbers at some point in the show, were okay. They leaned three a bit, but they were okay, and unfortunately, you're seeing the Heat just not being able to convert. How the hell are they going to survive this stretch without Bam and Tyler if Jimmy is not playing better? Because tonight, he looked really weird, so I guess I'm asking you really for your thoughts on Jimmy Butler tonight specifically. I just think I didn't really see him necessarily get to the spots that he would normally want to get to. It didn't feel like a Jimmy game on both ends of the floor, and I know you're asking about offense, but it just didn't seem like his head was there. Anything could be going on, but it didn't seem like the chest moves that Jimmy normally makes was there. Only one steal, to your point. Right. He got to the foul line, I think, seven times. Yeah, seven times, six or seven from the foul line, and so that's not a Jimmy game there. We've seen game, I remember the 24 free throws made last year, I believe, against the Knicks or the Cavs or somebody. He was having a rough shooting game, but he went to the foul line 20 plus times, so you just wasn't seeing the type of methodical game from Jimmy tonight, which you just can't have, especially with Duncan Robinson. Somebody that has been consistently dependable for you this season only gives you one point in six turnovers. It's so true. The margin for error without their top guys, particularly on offense, and then when it bleeds over to the defense, it gets weird. I thought that there were some good signs from Caleb Martin. I like that he's getting more and more comfortable. Jaime Jaquez looked good. Josh Richardson had his moment. So did Caleb. So the bench was fine. This was more about even Kyle Lowry. As much as I harp on him, 17 points, five assists, six of 13 from the field to me tonight was a Jimmy issue. They need Jimmy to be Jimmy against a team like Cleveland, who has a player like Donovan Mitchell, who's going to play to that level. And so they just didn't match it here. They had him at one point and they lost it and they're going to have to address that. What that is in their mental disposition where they exhale. And so that'll be an interesting thing to look at going forward. We're going to dive into kind of what we saw in the second half of the game, because that was after the heat had already lost their lead and when things started to go awry even further. Before we do that, though, I want to dive into our next sponsor. Eternal's going to tee this one up after we hear the imaging. And that is the insurance by Lynette play of the night. And now it's time for the insurance by Lynette play of the night. Sponsored by insurance by Lynette dot com and a aggressive insurance agency. You can reach out to our friend Lynette at nine five four five eight one eighty eight hundred. That's nine five four five eight one eighty eight hundred or insurance by Lynette dot com. That's insurance by Lynette dot com with two N's and two T's. Your best play for auto insurance, homeowners insurance, condo insurance, life insurance or retirement program. Reach out to Lynette at insurance by Lynette dot com and eternal. The play of the night is be careful here. How Larry comes into the game after a timeout. Sposed serious. They come back into the game. He's so Josh out for Kyle Darius Garland gets a steal, goes down and one at that point in time. Miami had cut down a lead on the serviceable and it just seemed like that was the snowball after two snowballs earlier. So I just kind of feel like they killed their chances. So that's the play of the night. Yeah, they're down to the nine seed Matteo. And I know that seeding is whatever, because I've said this again and again, they're the nine seed and they're four and a half games, which is basically a couple of good weeks from all of a sudden being, you know, at the top of the conference. And that's what parody is going to do to this league. But let's look ahead a little bit here. I'm going to get final thoughts overall, but I want to look ahead just a bit because they have this weird stretch where they play Charlotte twice, once in Charlotte on Monday. I'll be there as a fan, not as a credentialed media member, but as a fan cheering. It's going to get loud up in that place. And then they play Charlotte again on Wednesday, December 13th. Then they play Chicago twice, both at home, but twice nonetheless. Do you think that generally speaking, when you play this, these teams twice in a row, it lessens your chances of being able to like get through a three game homestand as it shows here with Charlotte and two against Chicago, because you're playing the same team so many times. Do you think that there's something to that? And we should be concerned that they dropped this game that they had in the bag early now that they have to kind of go through this little gauntlet where they're playing the same teams who've learned their tendencies by the second game. Well, I think you hit the nail on the head right there because it's tough to beat an opponent two games in a row, a mini series after the first game, coaches go directly to the film and probably right after the press conference when they're dealing with the media to see what exactly they missed. And usually when it's a mini series, I don't think they're having a direct practice. They might have a walk through a shoot around and it's just a heavy film room session to just hit what was missed. But really the next two teams are the Charlotte Hornets who have four wins at home and seven losses there. And the Chicago Bulls that are also I think actually seven and six. These are not very good teams at home. Oh, actually, no, the Chicago Bulls are coming to the to Miami. Forgive me on that point. You know, the Miami Heat should beat both of these opponents. You know, if they are the team that we expect them to be, you know, a team that's, you know, going to be there to challenge in the postseason, they need to start racking up these wins now. It's very unlikely that they could get very far in the playoffs with the route they had last season because and I'm not saying that to disrespect them. Being the eighth seed that makes the finals was a historical thing. The second ever. You know, it's best if you start racking up wins now to secure some home court advantage and that's what you need to do, especially when you go to the game and you bring your children. How dare them, you know, in advance not put up a respectable performance with you in the building. But, you know, what's my biggest concern about tonight, Greg and Eternal, is that the slippage started actually super early in the game. I'm sorry, Eternal. It's just that Darius Garland had four fouls in the first half and only played like six minutes. And then he went actually crazy in the second half along with Donovan Mitchell. So, you know, I hope early. It's mostly like a film room thing. I really don't think killing them at practice and deducing all of their energy is the move, you know, just showing them what they missed in the film room is what was what he needs to do. I'm with you there, Eternal. I'm interested because you watch the game. We both watch the game together on playback. Shout out to playback and download the app. Come watch games with us. I mean, we're chopping it up. You can come on stage if you want. You know, we're like we're going to be loose with you. If you tell me that you heard on five on the floor that Greg said you can come up on stage, we'll have you up on stage that night. So holler at us there on playback. Eternal frustration meter, concern meter and overall thoughts as we get ready to close after the injury report. My first meter is at 10 and it's not just this game. They've blown at least three or four 15 plus point lead game this season. They are 12 and 10 right now. So you're thinking like Miami could be 17. You know, like they could be like really above 500 at the top of the conference. And it's just like not like they're getting beat to sleep by teams like it's just there is games where they let go of the rope, you know, oh, oh, oh, ism. But it's just like, man, you can't have that happen. Right. Like Matteo said, these are the games, the two season of a team. These are the games that you win because you need to win them. You know, like at the end of the season, you don't want to look back and be like, damn, we should have won that game in Chicago. Damn, we should have won a game against the Knicks in New York where you were up 24 in both of those games and you were up 16 in this game. And you go into half time down one and then allow Cleveland to come out and get a 16 point lead on you just can't do that. So my first reading meter will be a team here is around five or six, maybe six and a half, just because, you know, they are without Tyler, they are without bail. But, you know, I do think, you know, we talk about on this board, make sure you hop on this board. I think there are some some step back and look at the team thing that they Yeah. And speaking of discord, want to flash for our viewing audience, we have off the floor. This is the discord server here. You can see the channels that you would gain access to. That's the five on the floor host updates. Heat main thing is the main thing. Chat. We have other NBA games, sports, nine hoops, fantasy gambling, e-sports, you name it. We've got it on five on off the floor. That is the official discord server. Sometimes you've got to go there and you've got to go to your server settings and go to your choose a tier to purchase. Just click through and you will get there. Reach out to Ethan or I on Twitter. DM us if you're having any issues because we want to get you signed up for off the floor. It's two ninety nine a month, three ninety nine for Apple subscribers. We are blasting the chat with content. There's great conversation all the time. We're going to be layering in more video content, breakdowns, exclusive interviews, even with heat players. As we start to curate those lists, as we go forward, there's going to be a lots of them that you're going to find on off the floor on the stage there. So check it out off the floor for sure. Now we're going to dive into the Eric Rubinstein injury report. And now it's time for the official five on the floor injury report sponsored by our friend Eric Rubinstein, the personal injury attorney born and raised in Lauderdale, Florida, lives in Miami, went to St. Thomas. He's a South Florida guy and a huge Miami Heat fan. But the important thing is he can help you get your money that you deserve when something happens to you. So reach out to our guy, Eric Rubinstein. Again, Eric Rubinstein dot com or ask about me. I got you on Instagram. And now the injury report. So we're going to go to Matteo for the injury report there. I just want to quickly say that I'm not expecting BAM to come back in any of these upcoming home games necessarily. And things get real unless things get really weird. Maybe Christmas. Doesn't that sound good? Tyler being on the bench tonight feels right, but Matteo, there were injuries on both sides tonight. Go ahead and give us the update on the injury report. And shout out to Eric Rubinstein, who sponsors this segment. Well, the regular for the Heat, obviously, no BAM, Tyler and Haywood Highsmith. But what's significant about the Cleveland Cavaliers, Evan Mobley was out and he's their most skilled big, which should have really evened the playing field since the Heat were without BAM on a bio. Evan Mobley is one of 22 players in NBA history to make an all defensive team by his second season. I know he's a very thin man and certain matchups can have him thrown around the court like a rag doll, but he is very effective against smaller players, stopping the ball outside and also being disruptive inside. He was absent for the Cavaliers today. So was Harris Levert, the number eight scorer off the bench this season. And someone whose efficiency has dropped as of late, but a decent point of attack defender who is also the Cavaliers without his services. And these are very important players and they have been just so impactful for the Cavaliers this year. And Miami missed a golden opportunity with them off the floor. They really did. And so we're not going to sugarcoat this. This is a bad loss. They needed to get this victory, not because the Heat aren't shorthanded as well, but because they had a recipe with which to win the game and they did not stick to it. And that ultimately is going to cost them. I know Spoh, as we've said on the show, has to be feeling the pain again. The Heat lose Friday night in Miami at Kaseya Center. 111 99 to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Next up, the Charlotte Hornets in Charlotte. We'll have you covered Monday, December 11th. That's a 7 eastern tip. I'll be on site there. You'll probably get a video or two from me on off the floor as well as on our YouTube channel. We'll have you covered via the podcast feed as well. Have a great night. And thank you to Eterno and Matteo for joining us on five on the floor postgame. We wish it was a better circumstance with a heat wind, but things will turn around. Have a great night. Sports Network. After all, someone needs to listen to my dad.