Pick your poison. Buried by 39? Or burned in overtime? Three days removed from a deplorable loss to Utah, the Heat this time extended its anguish before losing 86-81 in overtime Friday night to the Cleveland Cavaliers at AmericanAirlines Arena.

"Humbled" and "beaten down" were the assessments by coach Pat Riley of his team when it was over.

But he even was harsher on himself after the Heat shot 1 of 9 for three points in the extra five minutes.

"I thought I did a horses--- job of play-calling," Riley said. "I thought I should have gotten them something better than I got them. The end-of-game situation was terrible on my part."

Humiliated for 48 minutes in Tuesday night's 95-56 loss to the Jazz, the Heat this time was humbled by a pair of 3-pointers in the final 1:12 of regulation that allowed Cleveland to force overtime.

The dagger was a 3-pointer by Andre Miller that tied it with 24 seconds to play in regulation -- after the Cleveland point guard had missed his first nine attempts from the field.

"It could have easily been over," Miller said.

By the time overtime arrived, the Heat was where it has spent this entire season, in a fog of despair.

"We're challenged offensively. We're absolutely challenged," Riley said.

The Heat got a brief reprieve in overtime when guard Eddie Jones converted a 3-pointer with 1:03 to play, but a tip-in of a missed Miller layup by center Chris Mihm pushed Cleveland's lead to 84-81 with 36.8 seconds to go.

Jones then missed a 3-pointer, but the Heat retained possession, only to have a Jones' dunk attempt blocked by the combination of Mihm and Cavaliers forward Jumaine Jones. Cleveland coach John Lucas was so impressed by the play that he attempted to chest bump Mihm, only to be knocked to the court.

To appreciate how far, at 5-19, the Heat has fallen, consider it is 0-3 against the Cavaliers. Then consider that Cleveland, at 11-15, has not beaten any other team more than once.

"The Heat is definitely improving," Lucas said, as much in sympathy as in sincerity.

Eddie Jones did his part. But support was lacking. Cleveland got more from its center rotation of Mihm and Zydrunas Ilgauskas than Mourning could provide. And power forward Brian Grant was so shaky that LaPhonso Ellis was used at power forward in the deciding minutes.

Riley was particularly distressed by Grant's reluctance to take shots.

"Twenty times players had shots and didn't take them," Riley said. "That really has to be changed."

With a triple-double in his previous visit, Miller this time closed with 10 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. He finished 1 of 13 from the field.

As crisp as it has been in the final minutes of the fourth quarter in a while, the Heat could manage nothing more than a 78-78 tie to close regulation.

Just before Miller's key 3-pointer at the end of regulation, Jumaine Jones had nailed a 3-pointer that kept Cleveland close.

Regulation ended amid a scramble with the Heat's Jones unable to get a shot off from an inbounds play with 5.7 seconds left.