On Easter Sunday April 20th, 2025, at 7pm eastern time, the number one playoff seed Cleveland Cavaliers hosted the eighth seed Miami Heat for game one of the 2025 first round playoff series at the Rocket Arena in downtown Cleveland Ohio. This is the Cavaliers first game in seven days since the regular season ended. The Miami Heat defeated the Atlanta Hawks last Friday night 123-114 in overtime to earn the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff seed. The Cavaliers are well rested and healthy to start this series. The Cavaliers had no injuries to report prior to tipoff. Out for the Heat was Kevin Love for personal reasons. This game to open the playoffs for the Cavaliers can help prove or disprove the debate of rest versus rust to start the playoffs.

In the first quarter the better rested Cavaliers clearly outplayed the Heat and led after one quarter of play 31-24. In the second quarter the Cavaliers had a fourteen-point lead. But the Heat had a late run, and the Cavaliers led at halftime 62-54. In the third quarter the teams played each other even and after three quarters of play the Cavaliers led 87-79. In the fourth and final quarter the Cavaliers pulled away from the Heat to win the game 121-100 and take a 1-0 series lead.

The Cavaliers’ leading scorer was Donovan Mitchell with 30 points in 33 minutes. Jarrett Allen had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds in 30 minutes of play. Up next for the Cleveland Cavaliers is Game 2 of this series Wednesday April 23rd, 2025, 7:30 pm eastern time at the Rocket Arena in downtown Cleveland Ohio. The Cleveland Cavaliers are the heavy favorites in this series. And to advance in the playoffs and to be able to rest for the next series, this team needs to beat the Heat in 5 games. In other words, the Cavaliers cannot let up on the Heat in game 2 and they need to take care of business on Wednesday night.