Cleveland Brings Out the Brooms After Sweeping Miami in 4 Games

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The Cleveland Cavaliers proved to be too much for the Miami Heat after dropping the hammer in Game 4, 138-83, of their NBA Eastern Conference best-of-seven first-round playoff series on April 29, 2025.

With the 55-point decimation, the Cavaliers became the second team in the ongoing NBA Playoffs to sweep their opponent in the first round, joining the Oklahoma City Thunder as the first two franchises to grab early seats in the semifinal round.

Fresh off a 37-point blowout to build a commanding 3-0 series lead in Game 3, the Cavaliers wasted no time and didn’t leave any room to breathe for the struggling Miami squad when they immediately jumped ahead by a huge margin after the first 12 minutes of action, 43-17.

Donovan Mitchell and De’Andre Hunter kicked off Cleveland’s insane first-quarter rampage as the duo took turns torching Miami’s loose perimeter defense.

Right off the bat, the Cavaliers sprayed from downtown at will when the Heat defense allowed them to. Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra put an emphasis on locking down Cleveland’s paint after the no. 1 team in the East registered 60 markers in the shaded lane during their massive Game 3 dub.

However, that adjustment became a sort of pick-your-poison dilemma as Cleveland took advantage of their wide-open treys and made Miami pay heading into the second quarter.

The Heat showed some signs of life after Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo finally got it going in the first four minutes but a counter avalanche from the Cavaliers led by Ty Jerome and Evan Mobley swelled Cleveland’s cushion to 39 points at the end of the first half.

With the huge margin to rally, the Heat suddenly went flat and committed a bunch of unforced errors, including some miscommunication in the pick-and-roll defense that allowed the 1-2 punch of Mobley and Jarrett Allen to dominate the inside game.

Miami continued to struggle in finding their mark, and when the lead ballooned to as much as 60 points, Spoelstra saw enough and decided to pull out all of his starters with seven minutes remaining in Game 4.

Cleveland’s laser-sharp offensive performance was highlighted by their 22-made treys out of 47 tries and only missed three shots from the charity stripe out of 25 attempts.

The battle in the paint was an exact mimic of Game 3’s one-sided outing as the Cavaliers amassed 46 points underneath including 19 second-chance points.

What was impressive during their close-out win was how they stuck to their philosophy of swinging the rock to the open corner which resulted in 26 total team assists.

Mitchell led the Cleveland demolition with 22 points in just 24 minutes of playing time alongside five assists and a steal.

Hunter, who stepped up big time in the absence of the injured Darius Garland, delivered 19 markers built from an efficient 6/11 shooting from the field.

With the win, the Cavaliers will have ample time for recovery and rest as they await the winner in the series between the Indiana Pacers and the Milwaukee Bucks.

On the other hand, Miami’s loss marked another disappointing finish in the post-season and suffered their second-straight exit in the first round of the playoffs.