Cleveland Cavaliers vs Miami Heat player stats and box score for April 26 | 2025 NBA playoffs Game 3

Today, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat collided in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series.

Through the first two games of this series, Cleveland has looked dominant, taking Game 1 by 21 points, before then keeping the momentum going in Game 2. Of course, heading into games three and four in Miami, there's been some beef between the two sides.

After Game 2, Cavaliers guard Darius Garland stated that the team is planning to continue to hunt Tyler Herro on the defensive end of the floor. Those comments didn't sit well with the Heat guard, who fired back, saying that Garland doesn't play enough defense to talk trash about his skills on that end of the floor.

Heading into today's game, however, Garland was ruled out with a sprained left toe, an injury that reportedly occurred late in Game 2. As a result, Game 3 today didn't deliver the highly anticipated Garland-Herro matchup that fans hoped to see.

In Garland's place, Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson tapped Sam Merril to join Donovan Mitchell in the backcourt for today's Game 3 action.

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Cleveland Cavaliers vs Miami Heat player stats and box score

Cleveland Cavaliers player stats & box score

Name	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	Pts
Evan Mobley	6	3	1	1	2	1	19
Jarrett Allen	9	1	0	0	1	1	22
Donovan Mitchell	3	1	0	0	1	1	13
Max Strus	9	5	0	0	0	4	18
Sam Merrill	2	1	0	0	1	1	0
Dean Wade	4	2	0	0	1	1	0
De’Andre Hunter	4	3	1	0	2	3	21
Issac Okoro	1	0	0	0	0	3	9
Ty Jerome	3	11	2	0	0	0	13
Tristan Thompson	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Javonte Green	1	1	1	0	0	0	2
Craig Porter Jr.	0	2	1	0	1	0	0

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Miami Heat player stats & box score

Name	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	Pts
Andrew Wiggins	1	3	0	2	2	2	10
Bam Adebayo	9	1	0	0	6	2	22
Kel’el Ware	5	2	0	0	1	1	8
Davion Mitchell	4	5	1	1	0	3	16
Tyler Herro	4	3	1	0	3	2	13
Duncan Robinson	0	0	0	0	1	2	6
Haywood Highsmith	1	1	1	2	0	0	3
Nikola Jovic	3	2	1	0	1	1	3
Pelle Larsson	2	1	1	0	1	0	6
Jaime Jaquez Jr.	0	0	0	0	1	0	0

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Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Miami Heat Game 3 summary

With home court advantage, Miami jumped out to an early lead in Game 3, however, the Cavaliers proved why they entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed, rallying in the second half of the first quarter thanks to some impressive play from Jarrett Allen, and De'Andre Hunter off the bench.

At the start of the second, Cleveland had not only erased the early deficit, but also jumped out to a 13-point lead.

In the second quarter, the two were able to keep the momentum going, leading the Cavs in scoring while extending the lead that the team built in the first quarter.

Following a dominant first half, which saw Cleveland outscore Miami 62-42, the Cavaliers picked up where they left off in the first half, extending their lead in the third quarter as Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus, Evan Mobley, and Ty Jerome all joined Jarrett Allen and De'Andre Hunter in double-digit scoring numbers.

Despite heading into the fourth with a big lead, the Cavaliers were unrelenting throughout the final 12 minutes of play, closing out regulation with a 124-87 win over the Heat, putting them up 3-0 in this first-round series.

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