Bengals legend makes bold NBA playoffs prediction for Miami Heat vs Cavs
Cincinnati Bengals legend Chad Ochocinco Johnson has made a bold NBA playoffs prediction for the upcoming series between the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers. The Heat will take on the Cavs in their first postseason game on Sunday.
Many believe that Cleveland, who finished first in the East with the second-best record in the league, will make short work of Miami. However, that's not how Bengals legend Chad Johnson sees it. During a conversation on the Nightcap show, Johnson made a bold prediction:
“I don’t care who our matchup is, obviously. I’m going to tell you this, we might come out of the East. I don’t want anybody to be surprised. Now you saw what Bam Adebayo did tonight. You saw what Tyler Herro did tonight. You saw the contribution we got from everybody else.
“If the Heat come out of the East, I don’t want to hear nothing about anybody being surprised or that we can’t believe this happened. They let Jimmy Butler go, and they were still able to make it out of the East.”
The way Ocho sees it is that the Cavaliers are first in the Eastern Conference, while the Heat are eighth. So, if Miami beats the Cavs in a seven-game series, then they can go toe-to-toe with everyone else in the East. If there's one thing that the Heat has shown us, it's that you cannot count them out.
They made the NBA finals in 2020 and in 2023 behind the leadership of Jimmy Butler. Butler is gone, but the team still has a lot of quality and could end up surprising a lot of people during the NBA playoffs.
Tyler Herro and Andrew Wiggins will be key for Miami Heat against the Cavaliers in the NBA playoffs
For the Heat to defeat the Cavs, they will need solid contributions from both Tyler Herro and Andrew Wiggins. Herro has played 46 career playoff games, recording 14.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.4 assists. The 25-year-old will need to be much better if he hopes to take down the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Andrew Wiggins has also been decent in the playoffs, recording 16.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game. Their numbers are solid, but Herro and Wiggins will need to be intense on both ends of the floor to have any hope of defeating Cleveland in the NBA playoffs.