Cavaliers Send Message to Eastern Conference by Dismantling Miami Heat

The Cleveland Cavaliers are off to the Eastern Conference Semifinals after 138-83 Game 4 route of Miami Heat to finish off a sweep

Apr 26, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (31) high-fives guard Donovan Mitchell (45) in the fourth quarter against the Miami Heat during game three for the first round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Kaseya Center. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

The Cleveland Cavaliers knew what they were getting into when their first-round series with the Miami Heat began a little over a week ago.

Led by esteemed head coach Erik Spoelstra, the Heat are almost always a tough out this time of year. The word "respect" was thrown around plenty by members of the Cavs team and coaching staff. They knew better than to take them lightly.

In this series, though, "Heat culture" was only going to get Miami so far. The wine and gold disposed of Spoelstra's normally scrappy group in just four games, punctuating the series with a 55-point blowout win where it looked like the Heat already had flights booked for Cancun on Tuesday morning.

It was just the second time Spolestra's team has been swept out of a postseason series. But maybe the first time looked like his team had quit.

The Cavaliers will do that. Break another team's will. That's exactly what they did to Miami and they did it in different ways every time.

Game 1 was about sixth-man of the year finalist Ty Jerome exploding for 28 points as he killed the Heat with floaters and heat check threes throughout much of the fourth quarter.

In Game 2, Cleveland got Miami's best shot and still won. After going up nearly 20, thanks to a historic second quarter where they made an NBA record 11 three pointers, only to watch that lead dissolve during the third and fourth quarters. Then star guard Donovan Mitchell did what stars do this time of year and carried the Cavs to victory.

The series felt over at that point, but again, there's too much respect for the Heat.

Not enough to prevent Darius Garland from calling our Heat sharpshooter Tyler Herro after the win though, revealing the Cavs gameplan to "target Herro" in a postgame scrum.

A couple days later the soundbite earned an answer from Miami's leading scorer, who called out Garland for being the Cavaliers weak link on defense, too. It felt like it could serve as some bulletin board material, especially when Garland popped up on the injury report with a toe injury and missed Game 3.

Cleveland didn't miss him much, as Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley combined for 41 points and 16 rebounds to help power a 37-point win. Bench wing De'Andre Hunter also joined in on the fun with 21 points.

Garland was out again in Game 4 and once again, it didn't much matter. Everyone contributed to the 53-point win.

Cleveland opened the game with a quarter-long Cavalanche that saw them outscore Miami 43-17 in the first period. The game was already over, but just for good measure it kept its foot on the gas and took a 73-33 lead into halftime.

It made for a short night for the Cavs starters, with none of them exceeding 25 minutes played.

It was total annihilation. Par for the course in a series between a historic 64-win team and an eight seed that finished 10th in the conference and had to scratch and claw its way into the actual playoffs.

The discrepancy between these two teams was on display throughout all four games of this series, even down to the fact Cleveland has something Miami doesn't, a star player who can take over when things are tight in crunch time, and did just that in Game 2.

Doing it in the regular season and doing it in the postseason are two different things, though. People wanted proof that this Cavaliers team is for real. Well, they got it.

Dismantling the Miami Heat isn't a common thing. Consider it a message sent to the Eastern Conference.

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