Heat at Cavaliers
All-Star power forward Kevin Love will be sidelined with a broken hand when the Cleveland Cavaliers host the Miami Heat on Wednesday. Love suffered a non-displaced fracture of the fifth metacarpal on his left hand in the first quarter of Cleveland's 125-114 loss to Detroit on Tuesday.
Love's status will be updated by the Cavaliers after an examination on Wednesday, but reports surfaced saying the 29-year-old likely will miss six-to-eight weeks. "When it rains, it pours," downcast Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue told reporters after the setback. "Kevin has been great for us all year. To lose an All-Star in the midst of what we are going through is tough. But next man up, we've got to be ready to play. But I feel sorry for Kevin." Miami is one-half game behind the third-place Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference playoff race and has won 11 of its last 15 contests. The Heat posted a 95-88 road win over Dallas on Monday, when they limited the Mavericks to 38.4 percent shooting while holding a fourth straight opponent below 100 points.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FS Sun (Miami), FS Ohio, WUAB (Cleveland)
ABOUT THE HEAT (29-21): Center Hassan Whiteside stood out with 25 points (on 10-of-15 shooting) and 14 rebounds against the Mavericks, a performance that occurred one day after an hour-long conversation with coach Erik Spoelstra. "He had some great games like this where he's really put his fingerprints on the competition to impact winning," Spoelstra told reporters after Monday's game. "You felt his presence from the very get-go, and it's all now about the consistency night in and night out." Whiteside averaged just seven points on 6-of-17 shooting over the previous two games before posting his 18th double-double of the campaign.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (29-20): Cleveland has dropped 11 of its last 16 contests and now will be adjusting to not having Love, who has been involved in team friction lately - most notably with guard Isaiah Thomas. Veteran forward Channing Frye picked up some of the scoring slack with season bests of 20 points and four 3-pointers, and figures to be one of the players asked to step up his production. "That is a tough break," Frye told reporters of Love. "He has been playing some damn good basketball for us. He's been a workhorse for us. ... All of us need to step our game up."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Love scored a season-high 38 points in a 108-97 home victory over the Heat on Nov. 28.
2. Cleveland SG Dwyane Wade recorded 18 points in his return from a two-game absence due to the death of his agent, Henry Thomas.
3. Miami SG Tyler Johnson (ankle) is just 5-of-13 shooting in two games since returning from a five-game absence.