MIAMI — One text message from Max Strus to ward off complacency, a steal by Jarrett Allen and the Cavaliers were off to the races, eventually demolishing the Miami Heat right into the NBA record books.
The Cavs dismantled the Heat by historic proportions in Game 4 to complete the four-game, first-round sweep. They utterly destroyed Miami 138-83, signifying the largest margin of victory in Cavs franchise playoff history, besting a 44-point win over Boston in 2017.
For the Heat, it was their largest playoff loss in franchise history since — wait for it — Game 3 of this series, when the Cavs throttled them 124-87. And in both of those games, Cleveland was without All-Star guard Darius Garland.
In four games, the Cavs beat the Heat by 122 points, the largest margin of victory in a four-game sweep in NBA playoff history.
Those record-breaking numbers speak to a number of facets when it comes to not only the Cavaliers’ firepower, but the Heat seemingly quitting, at least in Game 4.
It also speaks to the Cavaliers fighting perhaps their No. 1 adversary in the first round, and as it turned out the only real factor that might have led to enough of a slip to leave the series open for an upset: their own complacency.
Strus wanted to make sure nobody fell into that trap with one text message to a group thread used by Cavaliers players. It was relatively straight forward, but it had a clear intent to serve as a reminder that close-out games in the NBA tend to be the most difficult victories.
All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell read part of the text — leaving out some choice words and phrases that he kept private. It wasn’t only about advancing past the Heat, but adding a few extra days of rest to act as a springboard into their second series with a long playoff run in mind.
“[The text read], ‘Take care of business so we can get some rest until the next round, take all the advantages we can get,'” Mitchell said. “Plus other words. … It just speaks to our group and our camaraderie and understanding the moment, which is huge.”
The Cavs responded by drilling the Heat by 55 points. It was just about over after the first quarter, and the Heat might as well have started packing their bags at halftime.
The sender might have had as much of an impact as the message itself. Strus is one of the only players on the Cavs roster with extensive NBA playoffs success on his resume, particularly past the second round. He’s also been on the other side of a series upset like the one Miami fell very, very short of this time.
“I think that [text] was huge, especially coming from Max,” said De’Andre Hunter, who had back-to-back games with at least 19 points in the final two contests of the series. “Max has been to the Finals and knows what it takes, especially coming out of the East. So coming from Max, that was big. We all have one goal. We’re trying to win a championship.
“This is cool to get this series, to get this series win, but the work is far from done.”
Jarrett Allen steal, dunk to open Game 4 sets the tone for Cavaliers vs Heat
Mitchell echoed that sentiment when asked if the Cavs were able to take a moment during their beat-down of the Heat to take in the moment of eliminating an NBA rival by 55 points, particularly after Tyler Herro and Garland added some trash talk during the series.
At one point, Mitchell took aside the team’s first-round rookie to remind him to enjoy the moment, but to keep the bigger picture in mind.
“I was telling Jaylon Tyson, ‘Man, this is special,'” Mitchell said. “I was telling him like, ‘This is your first playoff series. This is what you’re watching. This isn’t normal.’
“So enjoy the moment. I think we’ve got maybe two days to do that, and it’s time to lock in on whoever it is [in the second round]. We have a bigger goal in mind. … We didn’t come here just to sweep in the first round and get to the second, know what I mean?”
Outside of the text thread, Allen then set the tone on the court to open Game 4, grabbing one of his six steals and finishing it with a dunk. In retrospect, that play essentially ended the series.
“We get out there and [Allen] sat the tone with a steal and a dunk … and then he had some words that he said to me that I won’t repeat,” Mitchell said, smiling. “That’s when I knew we were gonna win.”
The Cavs await the winner of the Pacers-Bucks series. Indiana, the No. 4 seed, leads the series 3-1 heading into Game 5 on April 29.
