Cavaliers humiliated by Heat, Bogut breaks leg
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
The Cleveland Cavaliers were burned by the Heat Saturday night in Miami by 28 points with four Cleveland starters out of the lineup. LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and J.R. Smith all missed the game in Miami, and the Cavs couldn’t cope with the losses in the lineup. Fast forward to Monday night, the Cavs had a chance to redeem themselves with James and Irving back on the floor, not to mention a change of venue to Cleveland.
Entering Monday, the Cavs had won four straight home games over Miami, winning by an average of 21.5 points over that stretch. The last time the Heat entered Quicken Loans Arena in December, the Cavs sent them home with a 30-point loss. Yet, while Love and Smith were still out Monday with injuries, Cleveland was also without head coach Tyronn Lue, who has been ill for roughly a week.
Associate head coach Larry Drew took over for Lue Monday, the first time he has been a head coach on the sidelines since his time with the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2013-14 season.
“It’s been a little while,” Drew said just before tipoff. “I will admit that; it’s been a little while. We want things to be as if coach Lue was here. It’s my job to make sure this team is ready, make sure they’re out there playing hard, and certainly after our last game against Miami, hopefully we’ll come out and we’ll play better.”
That didn’t happen. The Cavs were throttled by the Heat on their home floor, falling to Miami 106-98 after a late surge.
“I don’t think we matched their energy,” James said. “One thing you know when you play Miami, they’re going to play with a lot of energy and they’re going to keep running their stuff. They’re going to run it to exhaustion and they’re gonna play with high energy.”
James and Irving did their part after missing Saturday’s game, but their teammates didn’t follow suit. James totaled 30 points, 17 rebounds and six assists, while Irving finished with 32 points and seven rebounds. No other Cavaliers reached double-figures in scoring.
Monday also marked the first time the Cavs latest addition, Andrew Bogut, was in uniform. Unfortunately for the Cavs, he lasted less than a minute in a Cleveland uniform. Seconds into the second quarter, Bogut was helped off the court after appearing to take a knee to the shin. He wasn’t able to put any weight on his left leg, and The Q immediately went silent when he went down. During the game, the Cavs updated his status and the results were a fractured left tibia that will likely end his season.
“It’s very deflating,” James said adding that he heard Bogut’s leg crack on the court. “It’s a tough moment. We all were excited about the acquisition and bringing him here.”
The Cavs trailed 29-22 when Bogut went down in a first half that went about as bad as it possibly could for Cleveland. When Heat shooting guard and former Cavalier Wayne Ellington converted a layup with 7:11 remaining in the second quarter, Miami secured a 42-28 lead. By the time another former Cavalier, Dion Waiters, sank a three-pointer with 3:23 to play until halftime, Miami took its largest lead of the half, 53-38. The Heat led 62-52 at halftime.
Cleveland climbed back within three points, 69-66, when Iman Shumpert made a layup with 6:31 remaining in the third quarter. However, that was the closest they came within the Heat the rest of the way. Miami closed the third quarter with a 20-5 run to take a commanding 89-71 lead into the fourth. Cleveland cut the lead to a five-point deficit with under a minute to play in the fourth quarter, but Waiters banked in a three-pointer with 12.2 seconds to play in regulation. After the shot, he threw up his arms and The Q began to empty.
“It took the air out of the whole building,” James said of Bogut’s injury. “You just heard it from the fans when he went down and we were just hoping for the best.”
Bogut a former member of Cleveland’s biggest rival in the league, the Golden State Warriors, said before the game that his decision to play in Cleveland wasn’t an easy one.
“It was a tough decision,” Bogut said. “It came down to two teams, Boston and Cleveland. I decided to go with Cleveland. Obviously, it’s the best opportunity to try and win a championship, playing with one of the best, if not the best, players to play the game.
“It was a tough decision, in a way, because of the history, but I can’t control it. I got traded, so I ended up having the luxury of having four or five teams recruit me, which is a nice thing to have. At the end of the day, I thought Cleveland was the best chance.”
Unfortunately for Bogut, his time in Cleveland may be done before it ever got started. If he isn’t able to return this season, the Cavs could cut him and look for another option.
Both former Cavaliers, Waiters and Ellington, had big games for Miami. Waiters finished with 29 points and five assists, while Ellington drained five three-pointers en route to 18 points, four assists and four rebounds. Goran Dragic chipped-in 21 points and six assists to the Heat effort.
Cleveland has dropped four of their last six games as they’ll hit the road for a three-game trip, starting in Detroit on Thursday.
POSTED 03/06/2017 22:23
Lake County Sentinel
Photo by Greg Goth
