Dion Waiters scored 26 points and shot 11-17 from the field but it simply was not enough as the Cleveland Cavaliers fell to the Miami Heat by the score of 109-105 on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. With the loss the Cavaliers fall to 18-38 on the season while the Heat improve to 40-14 and net their 11th straight win.
View the official NBA box Score here.
In addition to Waiters’ 26 points, Kyrie Irving added 17 points while Tristan Thompson added 11 points and 12 boards. Among the reserves, C.J. Miles led the bench effort with 19 points in just 21 minutes of floor time while Marreese Speights had another strong performance with 11 points on 5-7 shooting.
LeBron James led the Heat with 28 points and eight assists while Dwyane Wade added 24 points on the night. Shane Battier contributed 14 points to lead the bench effort while Ray Allen scored 11 points aided by a perfect 3-3 from behind the arc.
Coach Byron Scott had some critical statements in the post-game press conference when he said:
“We had big-time mental mistakes. The two plays that I was very angry about were when Shane Battier got the transition three-point basket and when Dwyane Wade snuck past the defense and got a layup. You can’t give up easy baskets with a one-point lead. These are things we have to learn from and they can’t happen any more this season. We had an opportunity against the NBA World Champions (Miami HEAT) and we lost the game because of mental mistakes.”
Cleveland may have blown the comeback, but they still managed to hold their own against the defending NBA World Champions. For a team in transition, that certainly is a positive.
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