Greeted with warm cheers in the player introductions, Lebron’s reception in his return to Miami was night and day from his Cleveland return.
Though expectantly, the jeers started once the game began.
Dwayne Wade was noticably fired up at the start of the game. Wade finished with 31 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists, scoring 24 of those points in the first half where Miami amassed 62 points. Though Wade cooled down in the second half, the Heat were also aided by a great performance from Luol Deng, who finished with 25 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists on 11/16 shooting.
Lebron James had 30 points, 4 rebounds, and 8 assists on 9/16 shooting and 10/18 shooting from the line. As for the rest of the Cavs big three, Kyrie Irving added 25 points and Kevin Love had 14.
The Heat won the game 101-91.
Concerning whether it was weird playing against James, Wade said,
“We didn’t have a bad breakup. We played against each other for seven years, man. The weirdness just wasn’t there. It wasn’t like we played against each other our whole career and the breakup happened. We played against each other for seven years, then with each other for a period of time, then he went back to the same situation and I’m in the same place.”
