The short-handed Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Miami Heat with an impressive 130-116 win. Let’s dive into the numbers behind the victory.
The Cavs were missing 135 of the 265 player minutes from Monday’s
overtime thriller.
Every absence from the regular rotation forces someone else to take on additional responsibility. That’s especially true when you’re without two All-NBA players. Fortunately for Cleveland, the role players who needed to carry that additional burden stepped up as Craig Porter Jr. (19 points), Tyrese Proctor (12 points), and Nae’Qwan Tomlin (9 points) all made meaningful contributions from the bench.
Cleveland’s deep bench reserves stepping up paved the way for the victory. They won the 12 minutes Luke Travers was on the court by 11, Thomas Bryant’s 13 minutes by 14, Tomlin’s 18 minutes by 20, and Proctor’s 23 minutes by 21.
Individual plus/minus isn’t a stat you want to make too much out of, but it is instructive that the Cavs played some of their best basketball of the evening when guys who aren’t normally in the rotation were given a shot. That’s incredibly encouraging if you’re the Cavs.
This was a career night for Porter. His 19 points were the most he’s scored in a game since the final regular season game last season where he had 20. Porter has only scored 19 or more points four times in his three-year career.
Porter’s nine assists were the most he’s had in a game since the team’s Dec. 21, 2023, loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. This was part of a team-wide effort as 32 of the team’s 45 field goals were assisted. That’s the team’s third-most assists of the season.
Porter’s good performance wasn’t just limited to the offensive end. He also contributed seven stocks (four blocks and three steals). That was a career high in blocks and tied a career high in steals.
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Jarrett Allen went from playing less than two fourth-quarter minutes in Monday’s loss to the Heat to contributing 12 fourth-quarter points on Wednesday. His previous high for points in a fourth quarter this season was four. Allen hasn’t registered double-digit scoring in the final frame since his 19 fourth-quarter points against the San Antonio Spurs on March 27, 2025.
This was part of a 30-point performance from Allen. That’s the most he’s registered since March 8, 2024, when he compiled 33 in a 46-minute outing against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Most importantly, the Cavs thoroughly dominated the possession game. They retrieved 37.1% of their missed shots, which puts them in the 84th percentile for teams this season, according to Cleaning the Glass. This was on top of turning the ball over on just 12.1% of their possessions (81st percentile).
Conversely, Miami grabbed just 24.5% of their missed shots (27th percentile) and turned it over on 19.6% of their possessions (16th percentile).
This all resulted in the Cavs winning the second-chance points battle 24-12 and outscoring Miami 29-16 in points off turnovers. We don’t often think about basketball being a possession game like we do with football, but it is. You will win most of your games if you have this many more opportunities to score. And, it can make up for a poor shooting night like the Cavs had. They went just 14-47 (29.8%) from three.
This was on top of attempting 18 more free-throw attempts than the Heat (31 to 13). It was the exact opposite performance to Monday, where the Cavs took just 27 free throws compared with Miami’s 41.
This all added up to the Cavs registering a 121.5 offensive rating (74th percentile) despite having a poor effective field-goal percentage of 50% (23rd percentile). Winning the possession and free-throw battle this thoroughly covered up for not having an efficient shooting night from the field.
