Heat, Cavs To Meet For First Time Since Wade Return To Miami
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) — The history between the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers may be recent, but the pages are certainly filled with drama.
Most of that drama, however, has little to do with games played between the squads.
Tuesday night in Miami the Cavs and Heat will face off, with much of the attention this time around going to the latest rematch between Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.
It's been nearly a decade since the duo partnered up with Chris Bosh in Miami and led the Heat to four straight NBA Finals appearances and two championships.
Then seemingly just as fast as they came together, the superteam was no more.
LeBron shocked the Heat by leaving as a free agent for his hometown Cavaliers three summer's ago, taking them to every NBA Finals since.
The Heat have struggled during that time, making the playoffs just once in three years.
Barring an unforeseen collapse, Miami is going to make the postseason this year and depending how the final weeks of the regular season go, could end up playing Cleveland in the opening round.
PLAYOFF PUSH
Miami is currently in 8th place in the Eastern Conference, but hold a comfortable five game lead over 9th place Detroit with eight games left on the schedule for both.
The Heat trail 7th place Milwaukee by just a half game and 6th place Washington by a game and a half.
Meanwhile, Cleveland sits in 3rd in the East and it's highly doubtful they can move up any higher. The Cavs can drop though, as the 4th place Sixers are just a game back and 5th place Indiana just a half game behind Philly.
FAST BREAK
- Cleveland will be without head coach Tyronn Lue, who will miss his sixth game of the season due to health-related matters. They are 5-0 in games Lue has missed.
- The Cavs will also be without sharpshooter Kyle Korver, who has been excused by the team following the death of his brother.
- Miami is expected to be without center Hassan Whiteside for a ninth straight game.
- The Heat have not lost at home to Cleveland in over eight years, dating back to January 25, 2010. That was LeBron's final year with the Cavs (the first time) before he temporarily took his talents to South Beach.
