The Miami Heat play at the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday at Rocket Arena
Game time: 8 p.m., Rocket Arena
TV: FanDuel Sports Network
Betting line: Heat +3.5
VITALS:
The Heat and Cavaliers meet for the third of four regular season matchups and the first of consecutive contests with another game in Cleveland on Friday. So far this season, the teams have split both previous games, 1-1. The Heat are 81-54 all-time versus the Cavs during the regular season, including 52-18 in home games and 29-36 in road games. Last year the Cavaliers defeated the Heat in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
PROJECTED STARTERS
HEAT
F Pelle Larsson
F Andrew Wiggins
C Bam Adebayo
G Tyler Herro
G Davion Mitchell
CAVALIERS
G James Harden
G Donovan Mitchell
C Sam Merrill
F Dean Wade
F Evan Mobley
INJURY REPORT
HEAT
Terry Rozier: Out (Not with team)
Vladislay Goldin: Out (G League)
Trevor Keels: Out (G League)
Jahmir Young: Out (G League)
CAVALIERS
Jarrett Allen: Out (Knee)
Tristan Enaruna: Out (G League)
Craig Porter Jr.: Out (Groin)
Tyrese Proctor: Probable (Quad)
Olivier Sarr: Out (G League)
Jaylon Tyson: Out (Toe)
QUOTABLE
Miami Heat coach Erik Spolestra on the state of the team: “We’ve proven that we have a great competitive spirit. It’s just one game before that. We have to have that consistency with it in these moments of truth. These games are the moments of truth right now. We’re playing against very good teams that are playing for something. That’s what you want as competitors, but we have to rise to that challenge collectively.”
Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson on the defensive effort in Tuesday's win against the Orlando Magic: "I just told the team in the locker room, if we're going to play defense like this, we're going to have a short playoff stint. Right now we have a mentality that we're just going to outscore people. And we all know when it comes playoff time, it's not going to be that easy offensively. You're not always going to shoot like we're scoring now. So if we're giving up 132 points, 128, I don't know, seems like every game, we're not going anywhere."
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Shandel Richardson is the publisher of HeatRoundtable. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com