The Heat And Cavs Played The Wildest Eight Seconds Of The Season

The Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers played one of the best games of this young NBA season on Monday night. You might have missed it while watching one of the other "one of the best games of this young NBA season" that happened during a bonkers night in the league (Wemby! Desmond Bane! The Pistons! Uh, Grayson Allen!), but it's true. The Cavs started out hot in the first quarter before the Heat walloped them in the second, and then the Cavs roared back in the fourth, thanks in part to four straight Sam Merrill three-pointers in the quarter, to force overtime.

I could talk about how Miami's unorthodox offense has constantly befuddled opponents this season, or how the defense, often Miami's calling card, has faltered, almost forcing Miami to score 130 on a nightly basis in order to win games. I could also talk about how Darius Garland going out with a toe injury in the third quarter, the same type of injury that nullified him in the playoffs last season, did little to destabilize the Cavs' comeback. I could even talk about Erik Spoelstra and the job he's done with this Heat team that has missed Tyler Herro for the whole season, and is now missing Bam Adebayo after he sprained his toe against the Nuggets last week. Hell, while I'm on Spoelstra, I could also say how refreshing it was to see him foul while up three points at the end of overtime, something I've wanted him to do on many occasions over the years, to no avail. But that would all be disingenuous, because I just want to talk about the last eight seconds of that same overtime period, and what became a hell of a wild ending to a riveting matchup on a random Monday night in early November.

The aforementioned "foul while up three" is a good place to start. With 8.0 seconds left, and Miami up 136–133, Cleveland's Lonzo Ball inbounded the ball to De'Andre Hunter. Norman Powell, who finished with 33 points for the Heat, immediately fouled him with 7.4 seconds left. Hunter made both free throws, then the Cavs immediately fouled Powell on the ensuing inbounds. Powell, who had just missed a free throw on the previous Heat possession after an away-from-the-ball foul, nailed both, setting up Cleveland with 6.5 seconds to try to tie it. Merrill got a decent off-balance look on the three from the inbound, but it was just long. However, the rebound came out to Hunter, who was able to tap it just enough for Donovan Mitchell to scoop it up, somehow barely stay inbounds while running for the corner, and then hit a ridiculous turnaround three to tie it with 0.4 seconds left. Double overtime was knocking on the door, and even as a Heat fan, I couldn't say I was all that mad about getting more of this game:

Here's the thing about Miami, though: They have one of the best inbounds playcallers in NBA history on their side. This has been a brutal week for Spoelstra, whose home in South Miami burned down last Thursday; he found out while on a plane back to South Florida after the Heat's West Coast swing last week. (Luckily, no one got injured; since Spoelstra had been renovating the house, no one was there.) Famously a workaholic, Spoelstra didn't take any games off to deal with that situation, and so there he was on Monday on the sidelines, ready to bust out one of his favorite tricks with 0.4 left.

The play is a thing of beauty, and it's one Spoelstra has deployed before: In the 2023 playoffs, he ran a similar play against the Milwaukee Bucks to get Jimmy Butler a lob at the basket to force overtime. Butler has since, quite loudly, moved to Golden State, but one of the pieces that came to Miami in that trade took over Butler's spot. There are two key actions that worked in tandem to get Andrew Wiggins a free runway at the hoop. First, Powell dragged his defender, Dean Wade, from the near corner all the way past the top of the arc, between Wiggins and Davion Mitchell. With Jaime Jaquez Jr. simultaneously dragging Evan Mobley to the corner Powell just vacated, that left a two-on-two in the midrange, one that Mitchell, the smallest guy on the court almost every time he's out there, cleared out with a back screen on Wiggins' defender, Hunter.

I have to assume that the Cavs plan there should have been to have Merrill, who had been guarding Mitchell, follow Wiggins on a switch, but the guard, who isn't known for his defensive instincts, simply ... didn't, which left Wiggins all the space he needed to cut hard at the basket. One perfect Nikola Jovic lob later, and Wiggins dunked the ball just before the buzzer, giving Miami the 140-138 win.

In the long grind of the NBA season, a November win, even over the best regular-season team in the East last season, is little more than a blip. Miami isn't suddenly a contender for out-battling the Cavs and, on the flip side, this loss didn't reveal any glaring deficiencies in Cleveland's game. This was just really fun, high-quality basketball with an enthralling ending. Hell, these two teams play again on Wednesday, and I have to assume they won't put another show quite as good as Monday's. Still, Monday night's game was worth the League Pass subscription all on its own. That's all I can really ask for when I turn on a basketball game, though I have to admit it didn't hurt that the Heat came out on top of this heavyweight slobberknocker.