Darius Garland scores 25 points, Cavaliers hold off Heat 104-100

MIAMI (AP)— Darius Garland scored 25 points, Donovan Mitchell added 18 andthe Cleveland Cavaliers assured themselves of a second consecutivewinning season with a 104-100 victory over the Miami Heat onWednesday night.

JarrettAllen had 15 points and 12 rebounds for Cleveland. Evan Mobley alsoscored 15 points, and Isaac Okoro had 13.

TheCavaliers (42-26) are now two wins away from matching last season’swin total, with 14 games left.

JimmyButler had 28 points for Miami (35-32), which got 22 from TylerHerro and 17 from Bam Adebayo.

Herro madea 3-pointer with 20.1 seconds left to get Miami within two, but theHeat — who committed a season-high 24 turnovers, leading to 29Cleveland points — got no closer the rest of the way.

The teamsplay again in Miami on Friday.

Kevin Lovescored eight points for Miami, facing Cleveland for the first timesince Nov. 13, 2013, when he was with Minnesota. Love had animmediate impact against his former club, getting Miami’s first twofield goals and drawing two offensive fouls in the first 3:53.

He was withCleveland for nine seasons, the last player left there from the2016 NBA championship team and asked for a buyout after he fell outof the Cavaliers’ rotation. He didn’t play in his final 12 gameswith the club, and joined the Heat during the All-Star break lastmonth.

“It is avery sensitive topic,” Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “It’sstill an emotional topic for all of us. We tried to handle it asbest we possibly could, always paying Kevin his respect and therelationships that he built and what he did for this organizationand this team.”

TIP-INS

Cavaliers:This is the start of four one-city, two-game stops that Clevelandhas left on its schedule. The Cavs go to Charlotte Sunday andTuesday, Brooklyn on March 21 and 23, and Orlando on April 4 and 6.“You probably want to pick your towns a little better than thisone,” Bickerstaff said. ... There were 18 lead changes and six tiesin the first half, none in the second half.

Heat:Miami’s previous season-high for turnovers was 23, at Toronto onNov. 16. ... PG Kyle Lowry missed his 14th consecutive game with asore left knee, and is still hoping to play later this week —either in the rematch with Cleveland on Friday or at Orlando onSaturday.

LOVE VS. CAVS

Context onhow long it had been since Love faced the Cavaliers: San Antonio’sGregg Popovich was 12th on the coaching wins list, the Los AngelesLakers’ LeBron James was 32nd on the NBA scoring list and GoldenState’s Stephen Curry was 140th in 3-pointers made. They’re all theNBA leaders in those categories now.

BUTLER’S SCHEDULE

Butler flewto Los Angeles after Monday night’s home win over Atlanta, landingaround 2 a.m. Pacific time Tuesday, and was there for the Lakers’jersey retirement for Pau Gasol — his former Chicago teammate andclose friend — that night. He flew back to Miami early Wednesday,attended shootaround in the morning and played against theCavaliers.