Tyler Herro’s response to Darius Garland

So far, the Cavs are making the Heat “feel their presence.” Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland have done most of the damage scoring. Ty Jerome, Evan Mobley and Max Strus have contributed as role players and it has been effective.

The Cavs, as per an article by Mirin Fader in “The Ringer,” have improved since Kenny Atkinson became coach.

The new offense Atkinson installed in Cleveland includes more cutting, more movement, and the result has been more offensive parity. Cleveland’s bench ranks no. 1 overall in 3-pointers, and they were a top-10 team in bench scoring, assists, and steals in the regular season.

The Heat only went to the line 28 times through the first two games of the series. That’s not enough. In the December game the Heat won, they were 24 of 26 at the foul line. The Heat need to duplicate that amount in every game the rest of the series.

Heat need to score a lot

Andrew Wiggins has played well when healthy, but hasn’t been fully healthy since coming to the Heat. He didn’t play in the fourth quarter of Game 2. Spoelstra replaced him with Jovic who played the entire fourth quarter. Wiggins, Herro and Adebayo need to average 70-75 points for the rest of the series.

Jovic played in Game 2 and clearly wasn’t ready. Ware was caught out of defensive position multiple times in Game 1 and only had three rebounds. Ware and Jovic must be active on the defensive end to disrupt the Cavs offensive flow. Jovic and Ware should almost average a double-double the rest of the series.

Defense, Defense, Defense

The Heat gave up 121 points in the first two games. They need to bring the Cavs scoring below 108 points. They need to win all the 50/50 ball or “hustle opportunities.” The Heat have been able to stay with the Cavs in rebounding through the first two games (only outrebounded by seven.)

Probably, the Cavs will win the series in five or six games. But, the Heat have an opportunity in this series to have their young players grow. Tyler Herro has the opportunity to separate himself from the narrative on him (poor defense, only a scorer.) Bam Adebayo can separate himself from the shadow of Jimmy Butler. But, the Cavs will end up winning the series.