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Key: Heat Wave in Cleveland
After pulling away from the Raptors on Monday and thumping the Knicks wire-to-wire on Wednesday night, the Wine and Gold’s early season funk is now in the rear-view mirror. And Cleveland can continue to make hay when the banged-up Heat roll into town to tip off a three-game homestand.
In their most recent win, the Cavaliers crushed Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks – with the Big Three all topping the 20-point mark for the sixth time this season in a contest whose greatest drama was which starter would win the water bottle challenge in the game’s closing moments.
After a couple weeks (mostly) away from The Q, the Cavaliers return home, where they’ve gone 9-2 so far this season – averaging 115.3 points per – to take on the Miami Heat, who’ve they’ve gone 3-0 against at home since LeBron’s return, winning those games by an average of almost 19 points apiece.
The shorthanded Heat come to Cleveland having dropped five of their last seven, including Wednesday night’s eight-point defeat in Atlanta.
Key: Long-Distance Love Affair
It’s hard to trace back exactly when the Cavaliers became the deadly three-point shooting squad that they have – but the genie’s out of the bottle now, and on Wednesday night, they hit 20-plus for the third time this season, canning a franchise-record 22 bombs in their blowout win over New York. (And with J.R. Smith still sidelined with a hyperextended left knee.)
The Cavs shot 55 from beyond the arc against the Knicks and currently lead the league in three-point percentage (.401) – ranking second in made triples (276) and threes made per game (13.8), hitting double-digit treys in 19 of their first 20 games of the campaign.
Individually, Cleveland has four players – Channing Frye (.481, 1st), Iman Shumpert (.449, 7th), Kevin Love (.422, 14th) and Kyrie Irving (.421, 16th) – ranked in the league’s top 20 in three-point percentage. And that doesn’t include James Jones, who canned all three long-range attempts on Wednesday night and is currently shooting 79 percent (11-for-14) from beyond the arc this season.
None of the above is great news for a Heat team that’s seen three of their last four foes shoot 40 percent or better from long-distance.
Key: Point of Contention
The Heat have dealt with a rash of injuries this season and, at 7-15, find themselves at the bottom of the Southeast Division. But one bright spot has been the play of their tenacious point guard, Goran Dragic.
The well-traveled eight-year vet comes into Friday’s contest averaging 23.0 points and 8.2 assists over his last six outings – including a 29-point, seven-assist outburst against the Knicks earlier this week. Dragic has notched double-figure scoring in all 11 of his most recent matchups with Cleveland – including 20+ in four of those games and an 18-point, 11-helper effort in a Heat victory last March in Miami.
On Friday night, he’ll have to deal with an opponent who’s been even better this season – Kyrie Irving, winner of the previously-mentioned water bottle challenge, who comes into the contest having scored at least 20 points in a career-best 11 straight games.
And as great as he’s been scoring the basketball this season, the three-time All-Star has been very good dishing the rock of late – averaging seven assists per over his last three appearances.
Key: Center of Attention
With a trio of superstar talent across the Cavaliers starting lineup (and an electric shooting guard like J.R. Smith), sometimes it’s easy to overlook the squad’s blue collar big, Tristan Thompson.
On Wednesday night, as Cleveland rained down a record number of triples, Tristan somehow managed to “quietly” grab 20 rebounds, one shy of his career high and one more than the entire Knicks starting lineup.
The former Longhorn is having another rock-solid season in the middle – averaging a career-best 10.3 boards in 2016-17, good for 13th in the NBA.
When Double-T suits up for his 391st consecutive contest on Friday night, he’ll be going against one of the best big men in the East – Hassan Whiteside, who’s led the Heat in rebounding in all 22 games this season, a franchise record. Whiteside’s 17 double-doubles this season places him second in the league, behind only Russell Westbrook – with the former Marshall standout averaging 17.6 points and 14.7 boards.
Key: Bench Trial
With Channing Frye out for tonight’s affair – excused by the team for personal reasons – and both Kevin Love and J.R. Smith listed as questionable, the Wine and Gold’s second unit gets another opportunity to shine.
Over this past week, it’s been DeAndre Liggins – who made the squad as a Training Camp invitee and who’s been very good in back-to-back wins over Toronto and New York. The D-League’s two-time Defensive Player of the Year has brought some true defensive intensity (and some timely shooting) to the game and lifted a Cavaliers team that had fallen into a lull after running out to their best start in franchise history.
Iman Shumpert, who came into the season healthy and distraction-free, has had a career year shooting the basketball – going .483 from the floor, .449 from long-range and .870 from the stripe, all career-highs. Richard Jefferson had been in a shooting slump before last week, but has gone 9-for-13 from long-range over his past five outings and James Jones, who’s maybe never been in a shooting slump, has been nothing short of deadly from deep in limited opportunities this season.