Cavaliers Remain Favorites To Close Regular-Season Series Vs. Heat Strong

Jimmy Butler, Miami Heat — The Miami Heat will need more offense if they are to pull off a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Andy Lyons/Getty Images

KEY POINTS

The Heat will try to level their regular-season series with the Cavaliers
The Cavs and Heat will use their defense to pull off a win on Friday
Miami needs more offense to back up Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo

Unless the Miami Heat can find a way to turn the tables on the Cleveland Cavaliers, another loss looms over the horizon on Friday, March 10.

The Heat and the Cavaliers tangle anew with the latter remaining a slight favorite to prevail (-1).

This time around, the Moneyline is at -120 for Cleveland and +100 for Miami.

The two teams have already met thrice this 2022-23 NBA season with Cleveland holding the regular season series edge, 2-1.

In their last matchup, the Cavaliers eked out a 104-100 win over the Heat with Darius Garland leading the way with 25 points and seven assists.

Donovan Mitchell chipped in 18 points, four rebounds, and four assists, while Jarret Allen and Evan Mobley contributed 15 markers each.

"The grit and the resilience that we showed," Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff stated after the game in a report by ESPN. "It was an ugly fourth quarter for both teams. These are two really good defenses that put you in difficult situations, forced a ton of turnovers both ways, but I thought our guys did a great job of maintaining their poise."

The Heat lost despite the 28-point effort of Jimmy Butler. He also had five rebounds and five assists.

Backing up Butler was Tyler Herro, who finished with 22 points, five rebounds, and five assists.

Herro also made a three-pointer with 20.1 seconds remaining in the game to trim the Cavs' lead the two.

However, the South Beach-based squad was unable to get any closer than that.

"It is extremely tough to win in this league when you have 24 turnovers," Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra stated after the game. "You have to credit them. The last six weeks, they've really turned up that disruptiveness."

Friday's matchup will once again be a battle of defenses with the Cavs and the Heat leading the NBA in limiting team opponent points per game.

Cleveland leads the league, allowing opponents 106.5 points per game. Miami ranks second, giving up only 109.1 points per contest to the opposition.

The Heat will try to even things against the Cavaliers with game time set for 8:00 PM ET.

The match will be shown over NBA TV with live streaming also available via the NBA League Pass.