Heat at Cavaliers
The Miami Heat finished up a disappointing three-game homestand with a 113-104 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday and will play two of the next three on the road, though all three are against teams with losing records. The Heat will try to take advantage of one such team when they visit the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday.
Miami's lone win on the three-game homestand was a 118-94 triumph over the Cavaliers on Friday and it failed to follow that up while committing 20 turnovers against the Timberwolves on Sunday. "We haven't had a game like this in a while, where our offense really hurt us," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters. "This was more indicative of early in the season with 20 turnovers that led to 24 points in a possession game, then add on (Minnesota's) 17 offensive rebounds. It was just too much to overcome." Cleveland owns the worst record in the NBA and dropped its last six contests after finishing up a three-game trip with a 111-108 setback at Atlanta on Saturday. The Cavaliers get a chance to right themselves at home with four in a row to begin 2019 before taking off on a six-game west coast trip beginning Jan. 9.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Sun (Miami), FS Ohio (Cleveland)
ABOUT THE HEAT (17-18): The star of Miami's win over the Cavaliers on Friday was small forward Justise Winslow, who is serving as point guard with Goran Dragic out and collected 24 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in that victory. Winslow, 22, is still fighting for consistency in that role and slumped to 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting, three assists and three turnovers in Sunday's setback. One positive coming out of Sunday was center Hassan Whiteside going 2-of-3 from the free-throw line after shooting 19.6 percent from the stripe in his previous 13 games.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (8-29): Cleveland is looking for building blocks for the future and is getting encouraging performances from power forward Larry Nance Jr., who replaced veteran Channing Frye in the starting lineup on Saturday. Nance, 25, filled up the box score with 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting, 15 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and a block in the loss. Small forward Cedi Osman, 23, stepped up against Atlanta as well with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting and closed 2018 by scoring in double figures in each of the last eight games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Cavaliers C Tristan Thompson (foot) missed the last 10 games but is practicing with the team and could return during the homestand.
2. Miami PF James Johnson (illness) sat out Sunday and is day-to-day.
3. Miami lost its two games at Cleveland last season by an average of 6.5 points.