CLEVELAND — That trade for Terry Rozier in January, the one for a future first-round pick and Kyle Lowry? Apparently, it was made for this moment.
With Rozier completing a late four-point play and then hitting a go-ahead 3-pointer with 14.5 seconds left, the Miami Heat slipped into Wednesday night with a 107-104 victory over the Cavaliers of Cleveland at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, despite being without Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Duncan Robinson and Kevin Love.
“That’s why we wanted him here,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. He is a great performer and has been throughout his career.
And there it was again, also closing out the scoring with a pair of free throws with 2.8 seconds left.
“Big shots at the end,” Rozier said, “that’s what I like to take.”
Even though the Heat were forced to field a starting lineup of Thomas Bryant and Patty Mills, Rozier stepped in to finish off what Jimmy Butler had set up with his scoring.
“I just know we had to get some kind of momentum,” Rozier said after providing that.
So take a 3-1 trip and regain hope of avoiding the treacherous play-in round early in the playoffs.
“Everyone on our roster,” Spoelstra said, “put their stamp on this game.”
Rozier closed with 24 points, including 5 of 6 from 3-point range, scoring 11 in the fourth quarter.
“Terry,” Butler said, “put on a show.”
Butler led the Heat with 30 points, with the Heat also getting 14 from Nikola Jovic and 10 from Mills.
The Cavaliers got 25 points and 20 rebounds from center Jarrett Allen, who took advantage of Adebayo’s absence, his fifth career 20-20 game, with Cleveland guard Darius Garland scoring 20, but missing a 34-foot heave just before the final buzzer.
The Heat then return to the Kaseya Center for a four-game homestand.
Five degrees of heat during Wednesday night’s game:
1. Closing time: The Heat led 31-30 at the end of the first half, 61-57 at halftime and 83-75 heading into the fourth.
The Heat then tried to give Butler a break by replacing him with Haywood Highsmith with 7:08 left while leading 89-85.
Back-to-back 3-pointers then brought Cleveland within 92-91, with the Heat calling time then putting Butler back in.
A 3-point play by Georges Niang then put Cleveland ahead 96-94 with 4:19 left, with two Niang free throws later putting Cleveland ahead 100-96 with 1:34 left.
And then, with 1:24 left, Rozier stepped back for a 3-point basket, was fouled and converted. The Cavaliers contested the foul to no avail, with Rozier completing the four-point play for a 100-100 tie.
He said he knew he was going for a 3-pointer the rest of the way: “They went up four points and the momentum changed. »
Baskets from Butler and Allen followed, leaving the Heat in possession with 31.9 seconds left in a 102-102 tie.
From there, Rozier hit a step-back 3-pointer with 14.5 seconds left for a 105-102 lead.
“That step back,” Rozier said, “I put a lot of work into.”
A Niang layup put Cleveland up 105-104 with 3.7 seconds left.
Fouled with 2.8 seconds left, Rozier then converted both free throws to close the score.
Excluding timeouts, the Cavaliers then fell when Garland left at the buzzer.
2. Back and forth: Butler was up to 20 points with 4:49 left in the second half in his first game back after missing two with a bruised right foot. That first score included a 3-point basket on his first attempt from beyond the arc.
Thirteen of Butler’s points came in the second half
“I’m fine,” Butler said of the foot. “I had to put it down.”
Butler then scored another 3-pointer in the third quarter.
3. And number 33: The Heat opened with the No. 33 roster, again surpassing the previous season’s high of 31 set in 2014-15, this time with Butler, Mills, Bryant, Jovic and Rozier.
This team had not played a single second together before Wednesday evening.
Mills became the 18th player to start this season for the Heat, two short of the franchise record set in 2014-15.
“Niko was great,” Spoelstra said, with Jovic missing the previous two games with a hamstring strain. His efforts included 4 of 10 3-pointers.
4. Mills maximizes: Mills scored all 10 of his points in the first half after scoring a total of six points in his previous four appearances.
It was Mills’ first start since starting two games in 2022-23 for the Brooklyn Nets.
“He’s been a plus in pretty much every game he’s played,” Spoelstra said of Mills’ play since joining the Heat at the trade deadline last month. “And he definitely impacts our offense with his spacing and movement.”
With his first 3-pointer, Mills moved into third place all-time in 3-pointers off the bench, his 1,236 moving him ahead of Lou Williams and now leaving him behind Kyle Korver (1,385) and Jamal Crawford (1,259).
5. Intermediaries: With Adebayo and Love both out, leaving the Heat without their starting and backup centers, Bryant got his fourth start of the season.
While he was active from the start, with three rebounds and two points in his opener at 5:19, Bryant was then forced back to the bench with his second foul.
Orlando Robinson, who had played Tuesday night for the Heat’s G League team in a game at Memphis, then entered. Robinson quickly made a 3-pointer and scored on a three-point play before that opening period ended.
Bryant closed with 10 rebounds and six points.
“Thomas just continues to get more comfortable and acclimated to what we’re doing,” Spoelstra said.
