CLEVELAND — When the Cleveland Cavaliers first assembled for this season there was a collective shock at the trash talk coming from Ty Jerome, a career role player who played only 15 total minutes in 2023-24 because of a bad ankle injury.
“He was talking his s—,” Cavs All-Star Darius Garland remembered. “[I was like] ‘slow down buddy.'”
“[The players] laughed at him because first he was this bit player and he still doing the swag stuff,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson said. “And they’re kind of like, ‘Who’s this guy think he is?'”
Sunday evening, the Miami Heat felt that side of Jerome, who ran his mouth and flexed on them as he scored 28 points in only 26 minutes off the bench for a masterpiece in his first playoff game. He was at his best in the fourth quarter, scoring or assisting on 24 consecutive Cavs points to turn a close game into a 121-100 victory to stake Cleveland to a 1-0 series lead.
It was the cornerstone of a dominating performance by the Cavs’ guards. Donovan Mitchell and Garland both looked fresh after a week off, attacking the Heat’s interior as part of a clear game plan: get inside, look to score or open up kickouts to teammates. Mitchell scored 30 points, going 9-of-10 on 2-point shots as part of an elite interior scoring display. Garland put in 27 points, drilling five 3-pointers and handing out five assists.
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Jerome made 5-of-8 3-pointers, including three in a fourth-quarter run that broke what had been an effective stretch of zone defense from the Heat. Jerome, Garland and Mitchell are only the fourth guard trio in NBA playoff history to each score 25 or more points.
It was part of a memorable day for Jerome, who was named a finalist for Sixth Man of the Year earlier Sunday.
“It’s definitely special after last year, not being able to play the whole year, not being able to play the playoffs, just watching,” Jerome said. “It speaks to the time my teammates have empowered me and how my coaching staff empowered me since day one for sure.”
The Cavs appeared to target Heat guard Tyler Herro on offense, repeatedly looking to create matchups to get him in isolation and then attacking. Jerome, who made 10-of-15 shots, several times flexed after scoring on Herro.
“This is who Ty is. This is not a shock,” said Mitchell, who first played with Jerome on an AAU team when they were 8 years old. “I know everybody’s going to react like this is a shock that he’d been doing this for us all year.”
Herro was coming off two brilliant games as the Heat became the first 10-seed to advance out of the play-in tournament, scoring 38 points in a win at Chicago and 30 at Atlanta. He scored 17 points in the first half Sunday, but the Cavs swarmed in the second half, aggressively denying him the ball and trying to make sure he couldn’t shake open when the Heat attempted to swing the ball to him on the weakside. He finished with 21 points on just 7-of-18 shooting.
Bam Adebayo led the Heat with 24 points and nine rebounds. Heat guard Davion Mitchell, who also had a strong performance in the play-in games, had 18 points off the bench, but the Heat’s guards lost the overall backcourt battle in Game 1.
“We’ve got three guys who are very talented with the basketball,” Donovan Mitchell said. “So it’s like you kind of have to pick your poison in that regard. Tonight was just an example of it, but we got to do it again [in Game 2].”
