Cleveland makes Heat sweat in 92-85 loss

Less than great shooting and 22 turnovers obscured a great defensive effort by the Cleveland Cavaliers,who hung in the game until the final seconds with the Miami Heat before losing 92-85 in Miami.
Kyrie Irving led Cleveland with17 points while Samardo Samuels added 15 in a strong effort off the bench.
The 6-10 Cavaliers return home to the Q tonight against the New York Knicks.

Swashbucklings

1) I loved the effort on defense. Cleveland got back on defense quickly and simply did not allow Miami to get their transition game going.
This also gives credit to the coaching staff,who prepared the team very well for Miami's game plan and almost stole a win away from the Heat.

2) Byron Scott is not perfect though,as I thought he waited far too long to re-enter Kyrie Irving in the fourth quarter.
Irving is the best player on the team and the threat of Irving driving the lane might have given an extra bit time for some of the jumpers taken in the final quarter and might have resulted in a few falling.
I understanding of the need to keep Irving's minutes under control,but I would rather see those minutes limited in the first or third quarter and used in the fourth to gain late game experience.

3) Samardo Samuels looked very strong in the first half.
Samuels made his first seven shots (most of them slams) and for a half looked like a player ready to step into increased playing time.
Samuels seems to play well when playing a physical interior game and struggles when he falls in love with his outside game,which needs lots of work.

4) Samuels minutes likely increased due to an ankle injury to Tristan Thompson,who sat the game out due to the injury.
Not sure if Thompson will be available over the next few games as of now.

5) Nice to see Lebron James stepped up again with a 8 of 21 shooting performance.
The defense on James was strong and the game plan good,but James looked more than a bit shaky to me,especially late in the game when he looked to have rather been the inbounder than have any interest in taking the big shot and deferring to Chris Bosh,who truly was the Cavalier killer on this night.

6) Just five points and six shots from the floor in a hair under 31 minutes of play from Antawn Jamison?
The veteran was virtually invisible in this one.

7) In the end it was turnovers (20) and missing open shots in the final period that doomed Cleveland in this one.
Those things will happen,but I was very pleased with the effort after two awful games in a row.

Photo Credit-AP