The Miami Heat head up north on Friday night to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers in a matchup between two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. Cleveland comes into the game 1-1 while Miami comes in 1-0.
Cleveland lost a tough game on opening night to the Chicago Bulls but recovered to defeat the Memphis Grizzlies by 30 points. The Heat won their only game so far against the Charlotte Hornets by 10 points.
In the win against Memphis the Cavaliers had a balanced attack and got contributions from everybody. Kevin Love led the team with 17 points and 13 rebounds and LeBron James has said that he is now the team's main focus and the offense will run through him. Love didn't shoot well in the first game but he recovered and made 50 percent from the field in game two.
James himself has not shot the ball well to start the season but like usual he has been filling up the stat sheet. James is currently playing through a back issue that required an anti-inflammatory injection which makes Love's offense that much more important because LeBron likely can't carry the offense right now.
Mo Williams has filled in admirably for Kyrie Irving in the first two games as he is averaging 14 points and six assists while only turning the ball over three times through two games. Irving and Iman Shumpert are both still out with injuries and are presumably not close to returning at this point.
For the Heat they won by a convincing margin on Wednesday but it wasn't all great as Hassan Whiteside struggled to guard Al Jefferson. Whiteside only ended up playing 20 minutes in the game and did grab six rebounds but overall he wasn't very productive and will need to be better moving forward.
The Heat's two stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh played well though as they combined for 41 points and 15 rebounds. That was Bosh's first game back since the blood clot issue but he played 32 minutes and looked completely healthy.
Miami also got some nice contributions off the bench as Gerald Green scored 19 points in his first game for the Heat and Justise Winslow had a highlight reel dunk in his NBA debut while also filling up the stat sheet. Amare Stoudemire did not play in the opener but he is expected to be available for Erik Spoelstra off the bench on Friday night.
This is a nice litmus test game for both teams early in the season as the Cavaliers are the favorites in the East but the Heat hope to be able to contend with them and potentially overtake them for that spot. It will be tough though as Cleveland has won 20 of their past 21 home games when both James and Love are in the lineup and this is the home opener so the energy should be extremely high.
The game tips off at 7 P.M. Eastern Time and for the live broadcast head over here. For the Heat radio broadcast go here and for the Cavaliers radio broadcast go here.
