The shorthanded Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Miami Heat with an impressive 130-116 victory. Let’s dig into the numbers behind the victory.
Cavs were missing 135 of 265 player minutes in Monday’s overtime thriller.
Each absence from the regular rotation forces someone else to take on additional responsibilities. That’s especially true when you don’t have two All-NBA players. Fortunately for Cleveland, the role players who needed to carry that extra load increased, as Craig Porter Jr. (19 points), Tyrese Proctor (12 points) and Nae’Qwan Tomlin (9 points) made significant contributions off the bench.
Cleveland’s deep bench reserves stepping up paved the way for the victory. They won the 12 minutes that Luke Travers was on the court when 11Thomas Bryant’s 13 minutes 14Tomlin’s 18 minutes for 20and Proctor’s 23 minutes for 21.
The individual over/under isn’t a stat you want to put too much weight on, but it’s instructive that the Cavs played their best basketball of the night when guys who aren’t normally in the rotation were given a chance. That’s incredibly encouraging if you’re the Cavs.
This was a professional night for Porter. His 19 points They were the most he scored in a game since the final regular-season game last season, where he scored 20. Porter has only scored 19 or more points four times in his three-year career.
Porter’s nine assists They 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 They were assisted. That’s the team’s third-most assists of the season.
Porter’s good performance was not limited only to the offensive side. He also contributed seven actions (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 He went from playing less than two minutes in the fourth quarter in Monday’s loss to the Heat to contributing 12 points in the fourth quarter on Wednesday.. His previous high for points in a fourth quarter this season was four. Allen has not recorded double-digit scoring in the final frame since his 19 points in the fourth quarter against the San Antonio Spurs on March 27, 2025.
This was part of a Allen’s 30-point performance. It’s the most he’s recorded since March 8, 2024, when he compiled 33 in a 46-minute outing against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Most importantly, the Cavs completely dominated the possession game. they recovered 37.1% of his shots missedwhich puts them in the 84th percentile of teams this season, according to Cleaning the Glass. This was in addition to losing the ball in just 12.1% of your possessions (81st percentile).
On the contrary, Miami took over only 24.5% of his shots missed (27th percentile) and I turned it on 19.6% of your possessions (16th percentile).
All of this resulted in the Cavs winning the Second Chance Point Battle 24-12 and surpassing Miami 29-16 in points thanks to turnovers. We don’t often think of basketball as a possession game like we do soccer, but it is. You will win most of your games if you have many more opportunities to score. And it can make up for a bad shooting night like the one the Cavs had. They were just 14-47 (29.8%) from three.
This was on top of attempting 18 more free throws than the Heat (31 to 13). It was the exact opposite performance from Monday, where the Cavs made just 27 free throws compared to Miami’s 41.
All this added up to the Cavs recording a Offensive rating of 121.5 (74th percentile) despite having a poor 50% effective field goal percentage (23rd percentile). Winning the possession and free throw battle completely covered up the fact that he didn’t have an efficient shooting night from the field.