Cavs hand Heat worst-ever playoff loss, roll 124-87 for 3-0 lead in series

MIAMI — Donovan Mitchell didn't have a great shooting day. Darius Garland was in street clothes, out with an injury.

And Cleveland rolled anyway, moving to the brink of Round 2.

Jarrett Allen scored 22 points, De'Andre Hunter added 21 and the Cavaliers — bullying Miami around all day — handed the Heat their worst playoff loss with a 124-87 win Saturday to take a 3-0 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

The Cavs took control with a 33-5 run early, outrebounded Miami 46-29 and outscored the Heat 60-30 in the paint.

''Our guys knew that was the key, rebounding and winning the rebounding battle,'' Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. ''We really executed defensively.''

Evan Mobley scored 19 points and Max Strus added 18 for Cleveland. Ty Jerome had 13 points and 11 assists in 22 minutes — he was plus-33 — and Mitchell scored 13 on 4-for-14 shooting.

They didn't need more from him and didn't need anything from Garland, their All-Star guard who was out with a sprained toe.

''Look, our guys really want this and it probably looks like our guys don't," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ''But I know what our last six weeks have been like, just to fight and scratch and claw to get into this.''

Bam Adebayo scored 22 and Davion Mitchell added 16 for Miami. The worst Heat playoff loss before Saturday was a 36-point defeat in Game 3 of the 2013 NBA Finals at San Antonio.

That Heat team won an NBA title. This Heat team is on the brink of being swept.

It's the 11th time that a Cavaliers team has taken a 3-0 lead in a best-of-seven series — the other 10 were all in the LeBron James eras in Cleveland, and they all ended in 4-0 sweeps.

These Cavs will try to finish off a sweep of their own in Game 4 at Miami on Monday. It's the 159th time in NBA history that a team has taken a 3-0 series lead; all of the previous 158 have gone on to win those series, with Oklahoma City — which finished off a sweep of Memphis on Saturday — the latest entry on that list.

It was all Miami for the first 5 1/2 minutes. After that, it was all Cleveland, the Cavaliers taking full control of the game over the next eight minutes with their 33-5 run.

Cleveland shot 13 for 17 during the spurt, scoring on its first eight possessions of the run. And it ended with five consecutive makes from 3-point range, those coming in a span of just over 2 minutes.

Just like that, 15-6 Miami became 39-20 Cleveland.

''We took the first punch,'' Mobley said. ''And from there we just took the game over.''

It was 62-42 at halftime, and Cleveland missed its first eight shots of the second half. But Miami scored only four points during that span, wasting a chance. Cleveland led 88-64 going into the fourth and that was it.

''Clearly, a very disappointing day,'' Spoelstra said.

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA