Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) attempts to grab a pass by guard Pelle Larsson (9) while pressed by Cleveland Cavaliers guard Max Strus (1) and guard Luke Travers (33) during the first half of Game 3 of the NBA Playoffs at Kaseya Center on April 26, 2025, in Miami. D.A. Varela [email protected]
The Eastern Conference’s eighth-seeded Miami Heat already entered this first-round playoff series facing an uphill battle against the East’s top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers. But now the Heat faces long odds that no team has ever overcome in NBA history.
After dropping the first two games of the first round in Cleveland, the Heat came home to be crushed by the Cavaliers 124-87 on Saturday afternoon at Kaseya Center. Miami is now down 0-3 in the best-of-seven playoff series.
“Clearly a very disappointing day,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
“It was embarrassing, flat-out,” Heat center and captain Bam Adebayo added.
No team in NBA history has ever rallied from a 0-3 hole to win a best-of-7 playoff series. Entering this year’s playoffs, teams that have dropped the first three games of a best-of-7 series have gone on to lose the series every time (0-157).
Saturday’s 37-point defeat marks the Heat’s most lopsided playoff loss in franchise history, surpassing a 36-point loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals on June 11, 2013.
“I know how much everybody cares,” Spoelstra said. “We just laid an egg today. A big part of it was Cleveland.”
The Heat actually started the game strong, opening the contest on a 15-6 run. But the Cavaliers responded with a 33-5 run to blow the game open and pull ahead by 19 points just a few minutes into the second quarter.
Cleveland never looked back, entering halftime with a 20-point lead and extending its lead to as large as 40 points in the second half. And the Cavaliers did all that while missing All-Star guard Darius Garland, who did not play on Saturday because of a left big toe sprain.
“Once we jumped on them at the start of the game, then they just took control of it from there and it became an avalanche going the other direction,” Spoelstra said, with the Heat drawing some boos from the home crowd during the rout. “And sometimes when you care, there’s a level of discouragement that kind of fed into that avalanche and that’s what we all feel disappointed about.”
The Cavaliers dominated the Heat near the basket in Game 3, outscoring the Heat 60-30 in the paint. Cleveland threw down 11 dunks on Saturday.
Even without Garland, six Cavaliers players finished with double-digit points led by 22 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field from Jarrett Allen. De’Andre Hunter added 21 points off of Cleveland’s bench.
That was enough for the Cavaliers to overcome an off day from All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, who totaled just 13 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 shooting on threes.
“Our defense has been really good of late, and today it was tough to recognize our defense,” Spoelstra said. “And I think that was from the discouragement from our offense not really flowing the way we’re accustomed to it doing.”
Meanwhile, the Heat was limited to 87 points despite shooting 16 of 34 (47.1 percent) on threes in Game 3. That’s because the Heat shot just 16 of 42 (38.1 percent) on two-point shots Saturday after shooting 26 of 36 (72.2 percent) on twos in Game 2.
The Heat has now dropped seven straight home playoff games, a skid that dates back to the 2023 playoffs. The Heat’s last playoff win came against the Boston Celtics on May 21, 2023 in Game 3 of the 2023 East finals.
Five takeaways from the Heat’s Game 3 blowout loss to the Cavaliers on Saturday:
After Garland took a verbal shot at Heat guard Tyler Herro following Game 2 and stirred up some tension between the two teams, Garland didn’t play in Game 3. It turns out the Cavaliers didn’t need him.
Garland, who was initially listed as questionable for Game 3, was ruled out for Saturday’s contest about 30 minutes before tipoff because of a left big toe sprain.
Garland also was bothered by this toe injury late in the regular season and Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said Garland re-aggravated the injury in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s Game 2.
“Whoever has probably played basketball, having a big toe [injury] is not a fun one to deal with just from a pain perspective,” Atkinson said during his pregame media session on Saturday. “So, yeah, he re-aggravated it. It’s unfortunate.”
This comes after Garland started some drama between the two teams when he said after the Cavaliers’ Game 2 win in Cleveland regarding the offensive game plan in the series: “Pick on Tyler Herro and take care of the ball. Don’t play in tight spaces and pick on their weak defenders, go at them.”
When asked to respond to Garland’s comment, Herro said following Friday’s practice: “At the end of the day, it’s competitive. But somebody who doesn’t play defense shouldn’t be talking either. He don’t play any defense and we’ll see that tomorrow.”
But with Garland unavailable on Saturday, Herro and the Heat will need to wait until at least Game 4 before trying to attack his defense.
“Whatever,” Spoelstra said a few hours before Game 3 when asked about Garland’s shot at Herro. “I think it was addressed yesterday. They won two games, so they’re talking [expletive]. It is what it is.”
Meanwhile, Atkinson continued to praise the Heat when the topic was brought up before Saturday’s contest.
“We have great respect for the Heat,” Atkinson said. “I’ve said that from day one, this is not a 10th seed, this is a top-four seed, now that they’re healthy and whole. And Tyler’s a great player, he’s an All-Star, great competitor, great competitor on both ends, much like Darius. So, it’s like the playground, right? Like you go out there and you get someone you’re going up against, sometimes there’s some verbal stuff. I think it’s overblown. And once that ball is thrown up, none of that stuff matters.”
Garland averaged 24 points, 2.5 rebounds and seven assists per game while shooting 51.6 percent from the field and 41.2 percent on threes during the first two games of the series. Sam Merrill started Saturday’s contest in place of the injured Garland and he went scoreless, but the Cavaliers still won by 37.
Even with Garland out and the Heat again hot from three-point range, the Cavaliers dominated the possession battle to dominate Game 3.
The Heat’s margin of error is already minuscule in this series against the talented Cavaliers. One thing Miami can’t afford is to be sloppy.
But the Heat was sloppy on Saturday and paid for it.
The Heat committed 17 turnovers, while the Cavaliers committed just 11 turnovers in Game 3. That allowed Cleveland to outscore the Heat 21-11 in points off turnovers.
The Heat also grabbed just five offensive rebounds to the Cavaliers’ 13 offensive rebounds in Game 3. That allowed Cleveland to outscore the Heat 22-10 in second-chance points.
Those advantages led to the Cavaliers finishing Game 3 with 10 more field-goal attempts and 10 more free-throw attempts than the Heat.
The Heat is already overmatched, as the first-place Cavaliers finished 27 games ahead of the 10th-place Heat in the East standings this regular season.
But allowing a Cleveland team that finished this regular with the NBA’s top offensive rating to dominate the possession battle is just too much for the Heat to overcome.
How damaging is it? The Cavaliers went a perfect 5-0 this regular season when finishing with at at least five more field-goal attempts and at least five more free-throw attempts than its opponent.
The Heat’s empty possessions and all of the Cavaliers’ second-chance opportunities negated another hot outside shooting performance from Miami. The Heat shot 9 of 20 on threes in Saturday’s first half and finished the loss 16 of 34 (47.1 percent) from three-point range.
It was a rough day for the Heat’s leading trio of Adebayo, Herro and Andrew Wiggins.
Adebayo, Herro and Wiggins combined for 45 points on 17-of-43 (39.5 percent) shooting from the field, leading to a rough day for the Heat’s offense.
Adebayo actually finished Game 3 with a team-high 22 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting on threes, nine rebounds and one assist for the Heat. But he scored just eight paint points and committed a game-high six turnovers against a Cavaliers defense trying to keep him away from the basket.
“Bam creates so many triggers and opportunities for us,” Spoelstra said. “Especially when he catches it in the paint, they’re swarming.”
Herro scored a game-high 33 points in Game 2 and averaged 27 points per game on 50 percent shooting from the field and 41.2 percent shooting on threes through the first two games of the series. But Herro was inefficient on Saturday against an aggressive Cavaliers defense focused on keeping the ball away from him, finishing Game 3 with 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the field and 1-of-3 shooting on threes, four rebounds and three assists.
“We rightly so have become reliant on Tyler creating a lot of offense for us,” Spoelstra said. “and they kind of took him out of his normal stuff with the face-guarding and denying and that led to some of the discouragement.”
Wiggins’ quiet series continued, as he recorded 10 points on 3-of-10 shooting from the field, 2-of-4 shooting on threes and 2-of-4 shooting from the foul line, one rebound and three assists in Game 3. He has totaled just 34 points on 11-of-31 (35.5 percent) shooting from the field through the first three games of the series.
“I have to do a better job of getting him in places where he can feel comfortable and aggressive,” Spoelstra said of Wiggins.
After making a change to its starting lineup in Game 2, the Heat stuck with that same starting lineup in Game 3. But rookie Kel’el Ware’s struggles continued.
The Heat inserted Davion Mitchell into the starting group and moved Alec Burks to the bench in Game 2.
The Heat went with that same starting group in Game 3, opening Saturday’s contest with the lineup of Mitchell, Herro, Wiggins, Ware and Adebayo. This unit played the Cavaliers to a 22-22 tie in the 13 minutes they played together in Game 3.
Ware’s rough NBA playoff debut continued, though, as the Cavaliers attacked his defense by running pick-and-rolls at him and again found success.
Ware closed Game 3 with eight points and five rebounds in 19 minutes. The Cavaliers have outscored the Heat by 24 points in the 57 minutes that Ware has played through the first three games of the series.
“I understand he’s being fed through a fire hose,” Spoelstra said of the 21-year-old Ware. “… He cares. We’re coaching him hard and I feel for him because there’s an expectation that he has to be there like a vet. These are important learning experiences.”
The Heat then went with the same bench rotation it used in Game 2, playing Pelle Larsson, Haywood Highsmith, Nikola Jovic and Duncan Robinson as reserves on Saturday before subbing in Jaime Jaquez Jr. to play the final 5:25 of the lopsided loss.
It was a bad day for the Heat’s bench, which was outscored by the Cavaliers’ reserves 52-18 on Saturday.
The only Heat players out on Saturday were Terry Rozier (sprained ankle) and Kevin Love (personal reasons). Two-way contract players are ineligible to take part in the playoffs.
Garland was the only player unavailable for the Cavaliers.
The Heat now faces the real possibility of something that hasn’t happened much in franchise’s history.
The Heat has been swept in a best-of-seven playoff series just twice in franchise history — in the first round against the Chicago Bulls in 2007 and in the first round against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021.
In fact, the Heat has been swept in a best-of-seven playoff series just once since Spoelstra became the Heat’s head coach prior to the 2008-09 season.
The Heat will try to win Game 4 in Miami on Monday to avoid the series sweep. Of the four times that the Heat has fallen behind 0-3 in a best-of-7 playoff series in franchise history, it has won Game 4 to avoid the sweep twice — winning Game 4 against the Bulls in the 1997 East finals finals before losing that series 4-1 and winning Game 4 against the Celtics in the first round of the 2010 playoffs before dropping that series 4-1.
“We just got to keep playing,” Herro said. “That’s what we’re paid to do and that’s who we are as an organization. We want to compete and we’re not going out 4-0.”
This story was originally published April 26, 2025 at 3:26 PM.
