CLEVELAND -- Random dribbles from the Cavaliers' 114-88 throttling of the visiting Miami Heat on Thursday:
1. When you're getting ready for the playoffs, it's hard to beat a night like this. The Cavs may be the No. 2 seed, but on Thursday, they looked like the No. 1 team in the league.
2. Oh, and they didn't even have Kevin Love and his 16.5 points and 10.0 rebounds a night. Love missed the game with a stiff lower back, something that's been an on-again-off-again issue since mid-January. Only this time it was the result of an elbow in the back in Sunday's win over Philadelphia.
3. But more on Love in a minute. This was really the story of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving (23 points apiece) just doing their normal thing against a struggling team. Irving, by the way, did it after spending the day in bed sick. Aside from those two, the Cavs received notable performances from Iman Shumpert (17 points) and Tristan Thompson (eight points, 15 rebounds off the bench).
4. In fact, Shumpert may have been the game's MVP. He was active, aggressive and just made tons of winning plays.
5. Meanwhile, Thompson threw down the NBA's dunk of the night -- a one-handed job over Heat center Chris Andersen. It came off a pinpoint lob pass from Matthew Dellavedova. In fact, if Thompson hadn't dunked the ball, it may have gone through the basket anyway.
6. Afterward, Thompson stood in the locker room and searched his smart phone for a video of the play. "I gotta see how it looks," he said.
7. Dellavedova finished with 14 points himself, making it a banner night for the bench. James Jones, who must have put up 200 shots before pre-game warmups, started in place of Love and scored six. J.R. Smith added 12 points and an underrated four assists.
8. Cavs coach David Blatt on the total team effort: "When somebody can't play, it's next man up. The sign of a good team is you make up for it when you're missing someone. We don't want to play without Kevin. But I thought a lot of guys stepped up, and that's a very good sign."
9. The Cavs (49-27) have won 17 in a row at home. They're 21-0 at home when hitting at least 100 points. They're 39-5 overall in that 100-point category.
10. Moral of the story: Get lots of home games in the playoffs and try to score 100 every night.
12. So much for a Cavs-Heat series in the first-round of the playoffs. Actually, I'm joking -- but it seems like that's all we heard about for a week. (Yes, guilty as charged.) But the Heat's loss dropped them to the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference. They're tied with the Celtics record-wise (34-41), but the Heat own the tiebreaker.
13. So if the playoffs started this very second, the Heat would open against the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks. The second-seeded Cavs would open against the Brooklyn Nets. But there are a lot of seconds remaining between now and the season-finale April 15, and a lot of things can still happen.
14. Heat star Dwyane Wade appears to be OK after he sustained a bruised left knee in the second quarter and did not return. Wade had the same knee drained last weekend. He said the injury scared him at first, but he thinks it will be alright.
15. Wade played just 13 minutes and finished with seven points on 2-of-6 shooting. The Heat were actually led by former Cavs forward Luol (We Hardly Knew Ye) Deng and center Hassan Whiteside. Each finished with 17 points and eight boards.
16. Wade on the knee: "I'll get treatment on Friday, which is what I was going to do anyway."
17. The Cavs are off until Easter Sunday, when the Chicago Bulls come to town. A win then will all but secure the second playoff seed. In the event you are still having doubts.
