NBA Preseason Preview: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Miami Heat

When it was announced awhile ago that the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat would play a preseason game in Brazil, it figured to be a nice chance for the Brazilian crowd to get to see the NBA's biggest star, as well as one of their own exports. At the time, though, it also figured to be a game pitting LeBron James and Anderson Varejao against each other. Obviously, things have changed. The fact that LeBron switched from one of these teams to the other over the summer definitely adds to the intrigue as the Cavs prepare to play their second preseason game.

Who: Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Miami Heat

When: 5 p.m. EDT

Where: HSBC Arena, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

How can I watch???: SportsTime Ohio or ESPNews

Here's a video of Varejao and Kyrie Irving seeing the sights:

The Cavs won their preseason opener on Sunday by handling Maccabi Tel Aviv in front of a joyous crowd at Quicken Loans Arena. Irving is expected to miss this game with a sprained right ankle, although his injury is not considered serious. Tristan Thompson started for the Cavs at center in the game against Maccabi, but it figures that Varejao will probably get the start for this one in front of his home crowd. I would also assume that Matthew Dellavedova will start in place of Irving.

The Heat have lost both of their games so far this preseason, to the Pelicans and Magic. Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Luol Deng each played at least 20 minutes in both of those games, so we should get at least a bit of a look at how those three might fit together once the regular season starts.

Here's one important thing both teams need to keep in mind, according to Chris Haynes:

Holding up the "three-sign" or the "three-goggles" in a certain way while in Brazil could be mistaken for "f--- you" or "f--- off," I was informed.

Good to know.