Visiting Cleveland Cavaliers Slightly Favored To Prevail Over Streaking Miami Heat

The Miami Heat will play host to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, March 8, but they will need more than homecourt advantage to pull off their third win

Both teams are on two-game winning streaks. In their regular season series matchup, the two clubs are even with the Cavs taking the first one, 113-87, in November. Miami bounced back in February with a 100-97 victory.

The Cavaliers opened as -1.5 favorites to prevail over the Heat despite being the visiting team. Meanwhile, the moneyline set for this matchup is -120 for Cleveland and +100 for Miami.

Cleveland is coming off a double-overtime win over the Boston Celtics, 118-114.

Donovan Mitchell exploded for 40 points in that game together with 11 rebounds.

Backing him up was Evan Mobley, who finished with 25 points and 17 rebounds.

However, the difference-maker in that matchup was Lamar Stevens as the 25-year-old forward came off the bench and combined with Mitchell in the fourth quarter to scuttle the Celtics.

Boston led by as much as 14 points entering the fourth before Stevens and Mitchell fueled an uprising.

"There is no way we win that game without Lamar," Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff stated via ESPN. "He changed the tone, the physicality, the effort."

Cleveland is expected to rely once more on their defense as they are allowing opposing teams only 106.6 points per contest.

Hence, Miami will have to step up its offense if they want to overcome the odds.

Jimmy Butler is expected to anchor the Heat offense once more alongside Bam Adebayo and Tyler Herro.

In their last win over the Atlanta Hawks, 130-128, Butler amassed 26 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists.

He received a helping hand from Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller, who had 22 and 21 points respectively.

The Heat bench needs to have the same effort if they are to foil the Cavs.

"Our guys are competitors. They love this kind of games," Miami coach Erik Spoelstra stated via ESPN. "It gets my stomach twisting and turning and everything. But these guys just love it. It was important to get this two-game set. We knew the context of it."

The Heat are also expected to use their defense to try and win this game as they are giving up 109.1 points per game.

Both franchises are slated to tangle at the FTX Arena with the tip-off set for 7:30 PM ET. on Wednesday.

The game will be shown over Bally Sports with live streaming also available via the NBA League Pass.