In the loss, Miami was out-rebounded 47-35 and was especially out-scored in the paint as Cleveland had 68 compared to 38 of the home team. Spoelstra would say after the game that there are “no excuses” as to why the group should be trailing like that in those specific areas, saying that they are the “bigger front line.”

“Some of the decision making, poor spacing that was leading to some poor decisions, and then there are some outright poor decisions, and then the rebounding again,” Spoelstra said. “You know, we’re a bigger front line, and this needs to be corrected. There are no excuses now, we have to be a lot more physical and purposeful on the glass, it’s that important for us to finish possessions.”

Heat’s frontcourt led by Bam Adebayo with Kel’el Ware struggled

The Heat’s captain Bam Adebayo would finish with 21 points on seven for 13 shooting from the field to go along with nine rebounds and three assists, but it was Ware who had a relatively down game compared to the last handful of games. Miami’s first-round selection would have five points on two-for-six shooting from the field with only four rebounds.

There is no doubt that the Cavaliers showed why they are currently the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference as they are now 38-9 while the Heat are still looking to find some sort of semblance and continuity. Spoelstra would give credit to Cleveland for how they were beating Miami in what is usually their strength zone.

“So then those are the things that you have to start with, and then you deal with Donovan Mitchell, you know, [Darius] Garland obviously didn’t play tonight, but you have to deal with the things that then are hard, but there’s other things that we’re capable of doing,” Spoelstra said. “Having better spacing, executing with more intention, better shot selection, that’s all within how we know how to play. Defensively, you know, disrupting things in the paint a lot better than we did at the rim in the paint, in the dotted circle. That’s our strength zone right there. And they pretty much had their way in that area.”

Heat’s Erik Spoelstra on the Cavaliers capitalizing on mistakes

The impact made at the start of the game by the opponents was noticeable as they were packing the paint leading to sloppy offensive possessions for Miami. Cleveland would have 24 points in the paint in the first frame compared to the Heat’s eight which set the tone for the rest of the game.

There would be multiple moments where the team would try to make runs to catch up, but as Spoelstra mentions, if you make one mistake, they are going to capitalize on it.

“I mean, the start of the game, they had, you know, 22 points in the paint, basically in the first quarter,” Spoelstra said. “And we’re thinking, ‘Hey, this a three-point shooting team, they haven’t even started their game yet,’ so that that didn’t really set the tone, you know, for the game. And then we also got introduced to the team that’s first in the east for a reason, every time we were able to get the thing anywhere from eight to 12 to 13 points if we made any kind of poor decision offensively, either shot selection or just decision making, it turned into a six, eight-point run immediately. If we didn’t block out, you know, and we had it within that range, it turned into a six, eight-point run immediately.”

At any rate, the team now embarks on a four-game road trip as they are back to .500 at 23-23 which puts them seventh in the East as they hope Heat star Tyler Herro is an All-Star by then.