Chris Quinn’s ‘CQ’ play seals Heat’s thrilling 140-138 OT win over Cavaliers

MIAMI AP The play is called CQ It s not the bulk imaginative name those are merely the initials of Miami Heat assistant coach Chris Quinn who drew up a play about four years ago that head coach Erik Spoelstra has been waiting to use That wait ended Monday Spoelstra called the play and let Quinn run the huddle in the final time-out of the tournament with four-tenths of a second left in overtime drawing up how Norman Powell would create a distraction and Davion Mitchell would set a screen and Jaime Jaquez Jr would just hang out in the corner and Nikola Jovic would throw a lob inbounds pass and Andrew Wiggins if all went according to plan would have a dunk at the rim Perfect Jaquez Jr noted Everything went as it should Final count Miami Cleveland capping one of the wilder games in this wild start to the NBA season I m just embracing the unknown embracing the confidence guys are gaining in what we re doing Spoelstra declared It inevitably helps when you get specific W s out of it but guys understand our identity to defend and now can create various things for us offensively Guys are growing right before our eyes Cleveland took shots in the battle the greater part ever by a Heat opponent and the the greater part by any association in the NBA since Jan The Cavaliers took -pointers also the the greater part ever by a Miami opponent and the third-highest total in NBA history Houston took on Jan and took three nights later for spots No and on that list And it wasn t enough That s a chess match Chess match You ve got to give them credit mentioned Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell who made a crazy -pointer with seconds left in overtime almost an afterthought because of what the Heat did next They made an excellent read an excellent call and you learn from these things This is great this happened now This is something that you get to a situation later in the year and say OK we understand where we can adjust We watch the film and go from there There were numbers Cleveland didn t like such as the - discrepancy in free-throw attempts in the third quarter which coach Kenny Atkinson pointed out to the officiating crew and earned an ejection in the process When the disparity s that great you ve got to stick up for your guys Atkinson stated Spoelstra had a different disparity in mind coming into the challenge a -point one that was on the scoreboard the last time the Heat and Cavaliers played Round Championship Eastern Conference first-round in Miami Cleveland embarrassed the Heat winning - to sweep what was the the majority lopsided playoff series in NBA history The Cavaliers scored exactly points again on Monday and the Heat uncovered a way to win anyway That series led Spoelstra to change almost everything about the way Miami plays The offense is unrecognizable compared to what it was The pace is super-fast compared to past years The goal is to attack on every possession either getting to the rim or getting a -pointer in the air Cleveland forced the Heat to reassess everything So far that seems like a good thing for Miami The new offense it s night and day Wiggins commented We re out there playing with a lot of pleasure playing fast Everyone s out there in great rhythm so it s been a great start of the year