Cavaliers vs Heat LIVE, Score Updates and Play-by-Play in NBA

Tip-off at the Kaseya Center is at 8:00 p.m. ET, 7:00 p.m. CT, 5:00 p.m. PT and 02:00 in Madrid. ESPN lists DAZN as the streaming option for the Cleveland market.

Stay with VAVEL for confirmed starting lineups, quarter-by-quarter scoring, Giannis' box score and the final injury word on both teams before the opening tip.

The game is at the Kaseya Center in Miami, where the Heat are 1-3 this season. They played no home games in their last five. Cleveland's road results in the same stretch were a loss at Oklahoma City, a loss at Charlotte and a win at New York. ESPN lists the line as Miami by 2.5 with a total of 236.5.

ESPN's matchup model runs against the line. It gives the Cavaliers a 64.2 percent win probability and the Heat 35.8.

On season scoring, Miami averages 115.7 points and Cleveland 116.4. Add them up and you get 232.1, a little below the 236.5 total. Miami commits 14.4 turnovers a game and Cleveland 13.0.

These teams meet three times in the regular season, and tonight is the first game of the series. Whoever wins starts with a lead in the head-to-head.

Cleveland has a small edge in field goal percentage, 46.4 against 46.2, and a bigger one from three-point range, 36.9 against 33.6. The Cavaliers also take better care of the ball with 13.0 turnovers per game against 14.4 for Miami.

Miami also has the slight edge inside the arc, shooting 56.2 percent on two-pointers against 54.7 for Cleveland. The Cavaliers block more shots, 5.8 against 5.1.

The Heat answer with passing. They average 28.7 assists against 26.7 for Cleveland, and they get 8.2 steals a night. The Cavaliers have 7.4.

Free throws are a tight comparison too. Cleveland shoots 75.4 percent as a team and Miami 72.3.

The Central Division is led by Detroit at 8-3. Cleveland is second at 6-6, two and a half games back. Indiana is 4-8, Chicago 1-9 and Milwaukee 1-11.

The Southeast looks different. Atlanta leads at 7-5 and Miami is second at 5-6, a game and a half behind. Orlando is 4-7, Charlotte 4-8 and Washington 4-9.

Neither team is far from the top of its division, and neither has a winning record. Cleveland is at .500 and Miami is one game under. The Heat have won two straight and the Cavaliers won their latest game.

Cleveland has two players listed as out. Center Evan Mobley is out with a toe injury and guard Sam Merrill is out with an elbow problem.

Mobley's absence takes away a big piece of the Cavaliers' interior defense, and it puts more minutes on Jarrett Allen. Sam Merrill is a guard, so Cleveland plays without one of its backcourt options as well.

Miami lists three players as day-to-day: Klay Thompson with ankle soreness, Giannis Antetokounmpo with a wrist injury and Pelle Larsson with an illness. Those listings are what ESPN shows this morning, so the final word comes from the team before tip-off.

Cleveland is 2-3 in its last five games and the results are mixed.

The Cavaliers lost 124-116 at Oklahoma City, then beat Philadelphia 119-95 at home. They lost 109-97 to the Knicks at home, lost 124-112 at Charlotte and then won 115-107 at New York in their latest game. That last result avenged the earlier loss to the Knicks.

The 24-point win over Philadelphia is the biggest margin in the stretch. Oklahoma City is 8-4 and Charlotte is 4-8, so the loss in Charlotte is the one that stands out. In the three losses, Cleveland allowed 124, 109 and 124 points.

Miami played its last five games away from home and went 3-2.

The Heat lost 138-117 at the Lakers, won 117-116 in overtime at the Clippers, lost 120-100 at Golden State, won 114-108 at Sacramento and won 115-109 at Utah. The overtime game against the Clippers (2-8 today) was decided by one point. The two losses were by 21 and 20.

The three wins came by one, six and six points, and Miami scored at least 114 in each of them. Two of those wins came against Sacramento (1-10) and Utah (1-11), who sit last in the Pacific and Northwest tables. The Lakers are 11-2 and Golden State 8-4, which is where the two losses came from.

The Cavaliers score a little more than Miami, 116.4 points per game, and they shoot better from three. They make 15.3 per night at 36.9 percent.

Donovan Mitchell is the scoring leader at 22.8 points per game on 48.5 percent shooting. He hits 79.4 percent of his free throws. James Harden leads the team in assists at 5.6 a game, with 2.9 turnovers in 32.7 minutes. Jarrett Allen leads in rebounds with 8.3, 6.0 of them on the defensive end.

Cleveland is a good rebounding team, 45.7 per game against 41.9 for Miami. That is almost four boards of difference, and Allen is a big reason why.

The Heat run through Giannis Antetokounmpo. He averages 27.7 points and 12.6 rebounds, and he shoots 56.7 percent from the field. The free throw line is the weak spot, at 61.6 percent. Of his 12.6 rebounds, 9.1 come on the defensive glass and 3.5 on the offensive end.

Davion Mitchell leads the team in assists at 8.5 per game with only 2.5 turnovers, a clean ratio for a guard who plays 35.8 minutes a night.

The Heat score 115.7 points per game and share the ball well, with 28.7 assists. They make 13.4 threes a night at 33.6 percent. Giannis is listed day-to-day with a wrist injury, so his status is the first thing to check.

Welcome to VAVEL's live coverage of Cleveland Cavaliers at Miami Heat from the Kaseya Center. Tip-off is at 8:00 p.m. ET, which is 02:00 in Madrid.

Two teams near .500 meet in the Eastern Conference. The Miami Heat are 5-6 and only 1-3 at home. The Cleveland Cavaliers are 6-6 and 2-4 on the road. The line has Miami as a 2.5-point favorite with a total of 236.5. Both teams come off road wins, Miami at Utah and Cleveland at New York.

Miami is second in the Southeast and Cleveland is second in the Central, so this is a game between two teams that sit in the same place in their divisions. We will follow every basket, run and substitution from the opening tip, and the box score will update through the final buzzer.