Game #23 Preview: Cleveland Cavaliers at Miami Heat

The Cavaliers will once again travel to South Beach to play against the Miami Heat. In their last meeting, the Cavs kept it pretty close throughout the entire game and might have been able to make it even tighter if it weren't for the heroics of Chris Bosh. Cleveland fell 92-85 at Miami on January 24th and will hope to complete the upset this time around.

Song Of The Day: RumpShaker - WRECKX-N-EFFECT

Throwback Tuesday!

Tonight's Overview:

Cleveland Cavaliers (9-13) at Miami Heat (18-6)

The more times that these two teams play, the more it feels like just another game. Instead of focusing on what the Heat do tonight, I will be simply watching how our guys play. I want to see consistent improvement and high intensity. The feelings of wanting Miami to fail are somewhat dissipating. Maybe that's just me.

It's worth mentioning that Dwyane Wade was injured the last time we played Miami. He's fully healthy now and that offers a whole slew of problems for the Cavs on both sides of the ball.

In a season that is so condensed and without any breaks, the Cavaliers seem to be getting a decent amount of rest. Once again, they got two full days of rest and should be good to go for tonight's game. Kyrie Irving has seen his minutes increase substantially and I assume that this will continue until he is averaging around 35-37 minutes per game. It's somewhat clear that Ramon Sessions is not part of the Cavs longterm plans, so Byron Scott ought to be working on moving forward with the offensive. More on Ramon Sessions in a post later today or tomorrow.

I'll also have a post on this later today or tomorrow, but the all-star reserves are selected on Thursday. That means if Irving or Anderson Varejao want to make the team, they'd be wise to give one of their best performances tonight in a game that a good amount of the league will be paying attention to. I've asked several other bloggers around the league if they think Ryan Hollins has any shot at making the all-star game and they've all pretty much said that my younger sister has a better chance. Tough luck, Ryan.

Daniel Gibson, Anthony Parker, and Tristan Thompson will all be out once again for the Cavaliers tonight. Thompson missed the last meeting between these two teams and Chris Bosh shredded our frontline. Thompson is the only one with any real bounce or athleticism and not having him means that Bosh can pretty much do whatever he wants. Anthony Parker isn't as big of a deal because he's pretty terrible. All it means is that Alonzo Gee may have to start at SG and Christian Eyenga might see some minutes.

Key Matchup:

Alonzo Gee vs. LeBron James

On January 24th, Alonzo Gee had his first really awesome game of the season. He held James to his worst game of the season by far. James had just 18 points on 8 of 21 shooting. Gee also hassled LeBron into 5 turnovers. It's not easy to keep Bron in check, but if Gee can do it two times in a row, I'll be thoroughly impressed. Also, I hope Udonis Haslem hasn't forgotten about how Gee dunked all over his face last time.

Fear The Sword's Fearless Prediction:

I'm sensing a similar outcome to last time. Byron Scott will get his boys to play with intensity and energy and fight until the final buzzer. I think it will ultimately come up a little short and LeBron won't play nearly as poorly as he did the first time. The Heat win by a score of 89-83.