Cavs cap off historic sweep with 55-point win

MIAMI — Up 39 points at halftime in a closeout playoff game, Donovan Mitchell had a message in the locker room for his teammates.

“We had to finish our breakfast,” the Cleveland Cavaliers star guard said.

The Cavs also stole the Miami Heat’s lunch money and whatever other bullying metaphors one could conjure.

Cleveland set a slew of records in its 138-83 Game 4 victory Monday night to finish off a 4-0 sweep in the Eastern Conference first-round series. The Cavs led by as many as 60 points before settling for a 55-point win, the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history. The combined 92 points Cleveland won by in Games 3 and 4 is the largest point differential in a two-game span in playoff history and, wait for it, the 122-point differential for the series also set a playoff record.

“I hope that players became better from it, but damn, it was humbling,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the worst loss in his 17 seasons. “This series was humbling.”

The top-seeded Cavs were without All-Star point guard Darius Garland for a second consecutive game because of a sprained toe, but they also had six players score in double figures for the second straight contest. Ten Cavs made at least one 3-pointer and seven tallied at least two.

The Cavs registered 22 more 3-pointers than the Heat over the four games.

It was the end of a brutal week for Heat All-Star guard Tyler Herro. The Cavs made attacking him on defense a primary part of their game plan, and in the two games in Miami, they relentlessly denied him the ball on offense.

Garland announced to reporters after Game 2 that the Cavs’ focus was to “pick on Herro,” which led to a minor war of words with Herro snapping back: “Somebody who doesn’t play defense shouldn’t be talking. … He don’t play any defense.” Before Game 3, Herro told The Athletic he was missing former Miami star Jimmy Butler III, who derailed the Heat season when he demanded a trade in December.

By the time Butler left in a trade to the Golden State Warriors, he was not popular in many parts of the Miami locker room.

“Obviously, I know I need Jimmy to win,” Herro said. “If we had Jimmy right now, I feel like it’d be a completely different situation.”

In Monday’s Game 4, Herro was 1-of-10 shooting and a team-worst minus-44 before Spoelstra pulled him from the game in the third quarter.

“Really no excuses for it,” Herro said. “It’s embarrassing.”

The Cavs were motivated to end the series to earn extra rest with potential second-round opponent Indiana ahead 3-1 in its series with the Milwaukee Bucks. Last season, the Cavs jumped to a 2-0 series lead against the Orlando Magic before dropping Games 3 and 4 in Florida, leading to a tiring seven-game series that affected Cleveland in a second-round loss to the Boston Celtics.

“Last year, we only won one road [playoff] game. We’ve only won one road playoff game since I’ve been here until this year,” said Mitchell, who led the Cavs with 22 points on Monday. “And for us just never being satisfied, it’s really a test on ourselves. Understanding that, yeah, we were up 3-0, but this was our test against ourselves.”

In the night’s most poignant moment, Cavs center Tristan Thompson had a long embrace with former teammate Kevin Love before the game. Over the weekend, Love’s father, Stan, a former NBA player, died at age 76 after a long illness. Love has been away from the team for most of the past month to be with his father.

Thompson and Love were teammates for six years in Cleveland and members of the 2016 NBA championship team. Thompson’s mother, Andrea, died suddenly two years ago.

“I told him that he’s got a guardian angel looking over him now,” Thompson said. “He will always be my brother, and I just wanted to be there for him.”