Cavaliers cap off historic sweep with 55-point win over Heat

MIAMI — Up 39 points at halftime in a closeout playoff game, Donovan Mitchell had a message for his teammates in the locker room.

“We had to finish our breakfast,” the Cleveland Cavaliers star said.

They additionally stole the Miami Heat’s lunch money and whatever other bullying metaphors one could come up with.

The Cavs set a slew of records with their 138-83 Game 4 victory Monday night to finish off a 4-0 series sweep. They led by as much as 60 points before settling for a 55-point win, the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history. The 92 points Cleveland won by in Games 3 and 4 combined is the largest point differential in a two-game span in playoff history and, wait for it, the 122-point differential for the series also set a new playoff record.

“I hope that players became better from it, but damn, it was humbling,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra after his worst lost in 17 seasons. “This series was humbling.”

The top-seeded Cavs were without All-Star point guard Darius Garland for a second consecutive game with a sprained toe but also had six different players score in double figures for the second straight game. Ten different Cavs made at least one 3-pointer and seven of them made at least two. They made 22 more 3-pointers than the Heat over the four games.

It was the end of a brutal week for Heat All-Star Tyler Herro. The Cavs made attacking him on defense a primary part of their game plan and in the two games in Miami applied relentless denial to him when he was on offensive, making his life miserable.

Garland announced to the media following Game 2 that the Cavs focus was to “pick on Herro,” which led to a minor war of word with Herro snapping back: “Somebody who doesn’t play defense shouldn’t be talking… He don’t play any defense.” Then before Game 3 Herro told The Athletic that he was missing former Heat star Jimmy Butler — who derailed the Heat season when he demanded a trade in December.

By the time he left, Butler was not popular in much of the Heat locker room.

“Obviously, I know I need Jimmy to win,” Herro said. “If we had Jimmy right now, I feel like it’d be a completely different situation.”

In Monday’s Game 4 he went just 1-of-10 shooting and was a team-worst minus-44 before Spoelstra finally showed mercy and pulled him from the game in the third quarter.

“Really no excuses for it,” Herro said. “It’s embarrassing.”

The Cavs were motivated to end the series to get extra rest with potential second round opponent Indiana ahead 3-1 in its series with the Milwaukee Bucks. Last season the Cavs jumped out to a 2-0 series lead against the Orlando Magic before dropping Games 3 and 4 in Florida, leading to a tiring seven-game series that affected them in their second round loss to the Boston Celtics.

“Last year we only won one road (playoff) game, we’ve only won one road playoff game since I’ve been here until this year,” said Mitchell, who led the Cavs with 22 points. “And for us just never being satisfied. It’s really a test on ourselves. Understanding that, yeah, we were up 3-0 but this was a our test against ourselves.”

In the most humanizing moment of the night, Cavs center Tristan Thompson had a long embrace with former teammate Kevin Love before the game. Over the weekend, Love’s father and former NBA player Stan passed away at age 76 after a long illness. Love has been away from the team for most of the last month to be with his father.

Thompson and Love were teammates for six years in Cleveland and members of the 2016 championship team. Thompson’s mother, Andrea, died suddenly two years ago.

“I told him that he’s got a guardian angel looking over him now,” Thompson said. “He will always be my brother and I just wanted to be there for him.”