The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Miami Heat 138-83 to secure a 4-0 first-round play-off series win and book their place in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
Donovan Mitchell scored 22 points for the visiting Cavaliers, who were also helped by De’Andre Hunter adding 19 points, Ty Jerome scoring 18 points and Evan Mobley contributing 17 points as they won by the fourth-largest winning margin in an NBA play-off game.
“We came out here with a goal in mind, to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,” Mitchell told TNT television
The 55-point margin was Miami’s biggest play-off defeat and overtook the previous record of 37 points which had been set in the third game of the best-of-seven series.
“We were humbled, but they had so much to do with how we looked,” said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra.
“None of us would have guessed this series would have gone this way coming out of our two play-ins. They just took it to another level. They left us behind these past two games.”
The Cavaliers will play either the Milwaukee Bucks or the Indiana Pacers in the next round, with the latter leading that series 3-1.
In San Francisco, the Golden State Warriors took a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference first-round play-off series against the Houston Rockets with a 109-106 home win.
Jimmy Butler was back for the Warriors after missing game three with a pelvic injury and scored 14 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, while team-mate Brandin Podziemski made six three-pointers in his 26 points.
The Warriors had trailed by seven points at half-time before going on an 18-1 run at the start of the third quarter, but the score was tied at 104 with one minute 20 seconds left of the contest.
Fred VanVleet scored 24 of his 25 points from three-point distance for the Rockets but missed a long-range shot in the final second that would have tied the game.
Game five will be in Houston on Wednesday, 30 April at 19:30 local time.—BBC
