CAVALIERS 138, HEAT 83
Betting Results:
Head to Head: Cavaliers, odds 1.275
Line: Cavaliers (-8.5), odds 1.923
Total Points: Over (211.5), odds 1.906
Pre-game Prediction
Cavaliers, 74.4%
Heat, 25.6%
Cavaliers win the series 4-0
MIAMI (AP) — Cleveland moved into Round 2 with the most lopsided series win in NBA playoff history.
Donovan Mitchell scored 22 points, De’Andre Hunter added 19 and the Cavaliers led by as many as 60 points before beating the Miami Heat 138-83 on Monday night to sweep their Eastern Conference first-round series in four games.
Ty Jerome had 18 points, Evan Mobley added 17 and Jarrett Allen had 14 points, 12 rebounds and six steals for the Cavaliers. Cleveland won the series by a combined 122 points, one more than the previous record for series margin set by Denver over New Orleans in 2009.
“We came out here with a goal in mind," Mitchell said.
The 55-point margin in Game 4 was the fourth-biggest playoff win ever. The record is 58 points, done twice: Minneapolis over St. Louis in 1956 and Denver over New Orleans in 2009. The Los Angeles Lakers beat Golden State by 56 points in 1973.
Nikola Jovic led the Heat with 24 points. Ban Adebayo scored 13, while Pelle Larsson and Andrew Wiggins each added 12 for Miami.
“Damn, it was humbling. This series was humbling. These last two games were embarrassing,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But Cleveland's also a very good team. ... They showed us why we weren't ready for that.”
Cleveland will play either Indiana or Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Pacers lead that series 3-1; regardless of whether the Pacers or Bucks advance, Game 1 of that series would be in Cleveland and not played until Saturday at the earliest.
“I'm always a big fan of rest,” Mitchell said.
This is the third instance of Miami being swept in a best-of-seven series. The others: against Chicago in 2007 and against Milwaukee in 2021, both of those in the first round and both also ending on the Heat home floor.
It was over fast. Cleveland — which used a 33-5 early run to blow Game 3 open — led 43-14 late in the first quarter before Davion Mitchell beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer. The 26-point margin matched the worst quarter in Heat playoff history; it was the second-best margin for any quarter in Cavs playoff history.
And the lead only kept growing.
It looked every bit like a 64-win team that led the East wire-to-wire going up against a 10th-place finisher that needed to win two play-in games just to get into the tournament.
“We came down here with the right mentality and again, our maturity, our leadership, all that stuff we've been talking about all year,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We don't seem to have letdowns. That's rare.”
Cleveland’s lead was 39 — 72-33 — at the half, the third-largest lead after two quarters in NBA playoff history. The only halftime leads bigger than that: Cleveland by 41 over Boston on May 19, 2017 and Detroit by 40 over Washington on April 26, 1987.
NBA's Top 5 Plays of the Night - April 28 - NBA Playoffs
WARRIORS 109, ROCKETS 106
Betting Results:
Head to Head: Warriors, odds 1.594
Line: Rockets (+3.5), odds 1.952
Total Points: Over (203.5), odds 1.909
Pre-game Prediction
Rockets, 37.4%
Warriors, 62.6%
Warriors lead the series 3-1
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jimmy Butler converted three free throws with 58.7 seconds left, grabbed the game-clinching rebound with 4 seconds to go and then made two more free throws on the way to 27 points in his return from a pelvic injury, sending the Golden State Warriors past the Houston Rockets 109-106 on Monday night in a heated Game 4 to take a 3-1 lead in the first-round playoff series.
Fred VanVleet missed a 3-pointer under pressure at the buzzer.
The teams return to Houston for Game 5 in the best-of-seven series on Wednesday night as seventh-seeded Golden State tries to close out the No. 2 seed Rockets on their home floor.
Brandin Podziemski scored 26 points, Stephen Curry finished with 17 in the frantic finish and Buddy Hield hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:32 left and scored 15 after joining the starting lineup.
Alperen Sengun scored with 40 seconds left for Houston to make it a one-point game. He had 31 points and 10 rebounds, while VanVleet hit a tying 3-pointer with 1:20 to play and scored 25 points.
Butler was back after sitting out Game 3 with a pelvic contusion and deep gluteal muscle bruise suffered on a hard fall when he was fouled by Amen Thompson early in Game 2.
The second quarter Monday featured four technical fouls and a flagrant 1 in two separate tussles, including shoving during one sequence involving Curry, Draymond Green and Dillon Brooks.
With the game tied at 36, Curry dribbled down the sideline when Green put a hard screen on Houston’s Amen Thompson. Brooks fouled Curry and he appeared to become angry about the push before going at Curry and Green.
Curry received a technical for “taunting” Brooks, who also received a technical along with Green. Warriors rookie Quinten Post and Houston’s Jabari Smith Jr. flailed their arms at each other but avoided technicals upon replay review by the officials.
Then with 2:44 left in the quarter, tempers flared again. Green received a Flagrant 1 foul for pushing Tari Eason’s face to the ground and Eason also received a technical. Green was dribbling when Eason went for a steal and the ball got loose and both players hit the floor trying to corral it. Green’s left leg was on the Rockets forward’s neck.
Butler shot 7 for 12 in 40 minutes after he watched Curry overcome a slow start to finish with 36 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in Golden State’s 104-93 victory Saturday night without him.
