After 4: CLE/MIA, OKC/MEM, GSW/HOU

CLEVELAND 4, MIAMI 0

Ty Jerome pushes the ball, knows he's good, DeAndre Hunter looks for quick shots, remembers he's good. Opponents think Jerome is after Ten-Day points, box score buckets, numbers for his next contract, but not here. Assists, Hockey Assists, overall good cheer, then some points, those buckets we spoke of earlier. Sam Merrill smiles at how open he is, but not with his face.

Cleveland goes down to Miami for a Saturday night performance and somehow the Cavaliers' jumpers gained legs in that air. Game 3 was one of those games where all the basketball shots that could go in, went in. Monday's Game 4 was simply Cleveland doing as directed. Moving into the open spots Miami seems to have a lot more of with Tyler Herro and Kel'el Ware and Andrew Wiggins out there than they did with Jimmy Butler roaming around. More basketball shots. Good!

Wiggins and Bam Adebayo were not on the same page in Game 3's 127-87 loss, Game 4 had no pages, no words, only the numbers, embarrassing numbers, numbers to say out loud: Cleveland was up 60 points in Game 4, won this one 138-83.

Consistent in each effort was what Miami lacked, that extra stretch that helps a defender close out and change someone's shot, let alone stop them from taking it.

Evan Mobley (14-23 from the floor in two games in Florida, 4-8 on threes) sets up for long attempts like nobody is out there, not even Bam Adebayo. Mobley lines up like he has to do the same thing against Al Horford, to Myles Turner and Kristaps Porzingis and, as the whole Cavalier locker room plans, to Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein.

And Darius Garland isn't out there, nursing that painful sprained toe. And Donovan Mitchell (8-15 from the floor in Game 4 after 4-14 in Game 3) looks in rhythm despite the odd scenario of his NBA team outscoring another NBA team by 92 points over two games. And Ty Jerome just hit half his threes in a playoff series, 16.3 points and five assists. Jarrett Allen had 10 steals in four games. The Cavs hit 44 percent from deep against Miami, against an Erik Spoelstra club, against Davion Mitchell, against any caveat media compels for Cleveland.

Miami? Tyler Herro can't run a break to save his life. Wiggins was destructive for the Heat, on both ends. Nikola Jovic was brutal in this series in ways Nikola Jovic wasn't in the regular season, losing his man, transition screwups, chucking with a foot on the line. Next year, on offense, Pelle Larsson should try running with his head turned in the other direction, facing the ball.

There is no next game. Miami lost its 2025 first-round pick in 2022 when it traded it with K.Z. Okpala's salary to avoid the luxury tax, clear room to sign Caleb Martin and Haywood Highsmith to full-time deals. The Heat also secured the Clippers' 2023 first-round pick in the transaction, Jamie Jacquez Jr., an All-Rookie First-Team selection in 2023-24.

You'll never guess which team has Miami's 2025 first-round pick.

OKLAHOMA CITY 4, MEMPHIS 0

Candace Parker is perfect as an at-game color analyst. Among her many strong points over the first week of the postseason involved delighting in the ways the Thunder keep their 3-and-D guys moving. OKC doesn't calcify its co-stars, every one of them gets a go at the dunker's spot. The Thunder refuse to let anyone turn into Taurean Prince, they don't make 34-year olds out of players born this century.

The Thunder turned it over eight times in Saturday afternoon's Game 4, only 34 times in the other three games. Memphis' four-highest volume shooters managed 31.7 percent (Desmond Bane), 37.9 percent (Scotty Pippen Jr., Jaren Jackson Jr.) and 41 percent (Ja Morant).

The Thunder boast too many potent scorers and finishers and playmakers and also whatever Alex Caruso does. Oklahoma City's head coach is often farther up the floor and into the frontcourt than Oklahoma City's head ballhandler is.

And the Thunder still haven't touched their first-round picks. Like Jay Leno and his 'The Jay Leno Show' money.

(You laugh, but primetime is where the real cash is, 10:30 is some scrill.)

Memphis badly needed a leader in this series, had none. I cannot conclude, as an outside observer, that Marcus Smart would make any difference in this series. But Memphis also needed a Marcus Smart-styled veteran influence to point in directions we don't understand, and take old man shots off broken plays. We'll have to remain patient until everything settles, judge the long game once it wraps, pre-write a column for 2030.

I trust in the talent acknowledgement of future NBA front office executive (let's face it) Luke Kennard, who passed up on good looks in Memphis' final game to defer to Zach Edey on the inside, Vince Williams Jr. on the outside. The Grizzlies are only some sensibility away.

Also, if Grizzlies head coach Tuomas Iisalo is such a student of NBA history then he should know the Grizzlies put him in an unprecedented spot. No other NBA team did this to its head coach, ever, until another team did it a week later but that's not the point.

There are at least 28 other NBA teams who don't act like that. Iisalo should find a head-coaching job with one of them.

Admittedly, there are probably fewer than 28. Most NBA teams likely looked at the Nuggets and Grizzlies fire their coaches and saw something they liked, maybe made plans for press conferences on the second day of April in 2026.

Fine, there are a handful of NBA teams who don't act like that. Tuomas should go run one of those teams.

Maybe not a handful.

That team. Find that team. Whichever team that is.

There is no next game, and Memphis owes its first-round pick to the Washington Wizards, No. 18 overall, Marcus Smart.

OKLAHOMA CITY TRADES

NBA media needs to stop fake-trading All-Stars to the Oklahoma City Thunder, made-up deals that make the Thunder far more famous, but also cripple their salary outlook and leave a far less dynamic rotation.

Oklahoma City has the Heat pick (No. 15) in this year's draft because OKC took on that K.Z. Okpala salary in 2022. OKC punted the 2023 Jamie Jacquez Jr. selection in 2022 (earned in 2019 through the four-way deal in 2019 which led Jimmy Butler to Miami and Paul George to the Clippers) because Sam Presti thought the pick was mid, protected 1-through-14 in 2023, boring. Traded up for an unprotected Heat pick in 2025.

The Thunder took a chance on the Jimmy Butler-led Miami Heat missing the playoffs three years down the line.

But the Thunder forgot about Chicago. They always do.

GOLDEN STATE 3, HOUSTON 1

The Rockets ... the Rockets will not like what they see when Ime Udoka runs tape. Then the Rockets will not like what they hear from their head coach, though his words won't be much worse than this:

Buddy Hield did that to you, Houston. And even tried to give it away a couple times late, also scored but 15 points on 15 shots.

But started the second half ahead of Moses Moody and set that tone. Lots of treble, I'm guessing.

The Rockets lost a chance to steal one long before Dillon Brooks woke Jimmy Butler up, well before Brooks sent Butler to the line for three free throws with a minute left, Butler giving the Warriors the three-point lead they'd win Game 4 by, 109-106.

Houston was thrown by Golden State's lineup shifts in Game 3 and again in Game 4, unnerved by the home crowd, spun from easy free throw points, hacked out of its preferred lineups, bullied out of taking home-court advantage away from the home team.

Houston shoulda had both games. Certainly Game 4, where Draymond Green went for the A-Hole Cycle (a technical, a flagrant foul, five personal fouls) by the third quarter and Houston still couldn't hack it, not with Trayce Jackson-Davis out there.

Butler and the rest of the Warriors paid strict attention to Houston's transition game. The Rockets didn't suffer on that end (Fred VanVleet walked into 8-12 three-pointers) though the speed was gone, Houston's quickness was pointless, Amen Thompson (17 points on 7-12 in Game 4's defeat) left to do increasingly cool shit in the half-court. Golden State put 50 misses on the glass for Houston's big boys to rebound and the Rockets managed but 14 fastbreak points.

Golden State turned it over 29 times in the first two games in Texas, the Warriors turned it over eight times in Game 4, ten times without Butler in Game 3. Golden State was mostly clean with Jimmy in Game 4 and not as clean without Jimmy in Game 3, GSW gave up corner threes to the wrong people (read: NBA players), resorted to hacking Steven Adams to slow Rocket acceleration far earlier in Game 3 than it did with Butler in Game 4. GSW took advantage of strong free throw defense (Houston shot 33-55 on freebies in San Francisco, 60 percent) and lost the bit in transition a few times with Butler on ice.

Stephen Curry managed 17 points and personally supplied half of those eight turnovers in Game 4, didn't matter, Brandin Podziemski spent the entire evening trying to make up for past mistakes (either from Monday, or any other night) and succeeding (6-11 on threes, 26 points, five boards, five assists, a block and two steals).

Similarly, the Rockets need to be reminded of their size and collective abilities.

Houston will not be perfect in Game 5, but it will watch that tape, and it will improve. This team is young, that's what they do, one step forward, two steps, wait, coach, what direction is this? Right. Two steps forward. To the straight, not the right.

The Rockets left so many fixable things on the floor in Game 3 and Game 4, and cannot help but increase its awareness and overall productivity at home by rote, and via experience in Game 5. There has to be a Game 6, Dillon Brooks ruined our chance at a best-of three series with that foul on Butler.

The trick is refusing to panic when the sensible game plan hits its first snag. How heady will Houston be after that first hit to the head?

Now would be an advantageous time for Jalen Green (eight points on eight shots in Game 4, five turnovers, 6-10 free throws on the series) to turn into a big free throw guy.

If Jalen can't get the job done, I know a potent combo guard the Cleveland Cavaliers can't re-sign.

BRING IT TO JEROME

If you haven't had this song in your head during every Cavalier game then I haven't done my job.

Thanks for reading! Here are the other After 4s.