The Miami Heat reach the midpoint of a five-game road swing on Wednesday when they face a Cleveland Cavaliers team playing the second leg of a road-home back-to-back.
Cleveland went to overtime to beat Philadelphia 122-119 Tuesday night in an NBA in-season tournament matchup.
Playing without Donovan Mitchell for the third straight game due to a right hamstring injury, the Cavaliers built an 18-point lead in the second half before the 76ers battled back.
Darius Garland’s 32 points set the pace, Jarrett Allen scored 26 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, Max Strus shot 5-of-10 from 3-point range en route to 20 points, and Evan Mobley went for 18 points and 12 rebounds as Cleveland won its fourth straight game.
Garland has scored 86 points over the Cavaliers’ last three games, picking up the offensive load with Mitchell, who averages 29.2 points per game, on the sidelines.
Craig Porter has seen a significant role off the bench in recent games as well. The rookie scored a career-high 21 points in Cleveland’s 121-109 defeat of reigning NBA champion Denver on Sunday, and followed it up with a game-high nine assists against Philadelphia.
The last of Porter’s assists set up Allen for the ultimate go-ahead basket late in overtime.
Miami comes into Cleveland looking to string together consecutive wins of its own after it opened its road trip by splitting games with the Chicago Bulls.
Following a 102-97 loss on Saturday that snapped the Heat’s seven-game winning streak, Miami regrouped with a 118-100 rout on Monday.
Bam Adebayo scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, Duncan Robinson shot 6 of 9 from 3-point range en route to 22 points, and rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. came off the bench to score 19 points on 8-of-13 shooting, with four assists and two steals.
Saturday’s loss was only the second time all season Miami scored fewer than 100 points. The Heat shot 33 of 77, committed 15 turnovers and gave up twice as many offensive rebounds (10) as they snared on their end (five).
On Monday, however, Miami shot 42 of 84, committed just eight turnovers and grabbed nine offensive rebounds to Chicago’s seven.
With the win, the Heat improved to 5-1 while they have been without Tyler Herro. The team leader with 22.9 points per game, Herro has been sidelined with a Grade 2 ankle sprain.
Robinson stepped into Herro’s spot in the starting lineup and has scored in double figures in every game. Monday was Robinson’s third of at least 22 points after games of 26 on Nov. 12 at San Antonio and Nov. 16 at home against Brooklyn.
