Heat take care of business with 121-111 victory over Raptors, with greater challenges ahead

MIAMI — Are the Miami Heat the NBA’s version of the Miami Dolphins?

For at least one more game, the Heat certainly would be willing to follow on that track.

Showing an ability to look closer to their best against second-tier opposition, the Heat for the second consecutive game pushed aside a team at the bottom of the standings, this time following up Wednesday night’s road victory over the Charlotte Hornets with a 121-111 victory Friday night against the Toronto Raptors at Kaseya Center.

Up next for the Heat? The now 5-15 Raptors on Sunday night in a rematch at Scotiabank Center.

But then the true tests will resume, with the Heat schedule following with games in order against the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Orlando Magic.

Against that level of competition, the Heat have looked closer to what the Miami Dolphins looked like on Thanksgiving night against the Green Bay Packers.

For now, the Heat move on to Toronto with a 9-8 record, a victory fueled Friday night by 26 points from Jimmy Butler, 23 from Tyler Herro, 15 from Jaime Jaquez Jr. and across-the-board contributions from Bam Adebayo, who finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, completing the triple-double with the game’s final rebound.

The victory tied Heat coach Spoelstra with Nate McMillan for 18th on the NBA’s all-time regular-season coaching wins list.

Five Degrees of Heat from Friday night’s game:

— 1. Closing time: The Raptors led 21-20 after the first quarter and 61-58 at halftime.

The Heat then came to life in the third period, with a 19-2 run helping fuel them to a 96-84 lead going into the fourth.

The Heat pushed the lead to 15 early in the final period, but that’s when the Raptors surged, just as the Hornets did in Wednesday night’s fourth quarter in Charlotte.

This time, the Raptors moved within 108-100 with 4:27 to play, before Herro countered with a 3-pointer.

The Raptors then got the deficit down to 111-104 on a pair of Scottie Barnes free throws with 2:57 to play. But from there Butler stepped up with his second 3-pointer to help settle matters.

— 2. Back at it: Lethargic at the outset and then unable to go at the finish of Wednesday night’s victory in Charlotte, Butler looked far closer to himself Friday night, again in attack mode.

Butler sat out the fourth quarter of the Hornets game due to what the Heat termed back soreness, on the team’s injury report entering Friday night’s game.

This time he was back not only orchestrating the offense but also working his way to the foul line, as he had done in the Heat’s two victories prior to the win in Charlotte.

He closed 8 of 14 from the field and 8 of 9 from the line, with six assists.

— 3. Jaquez’s moments: Amid an uneven sophomore season that has seen him shuffled down the bench rotation, Jaquez made a statement during the Heat’s third-quarter surge, closing the period 3 of 3 from the field, including 2 of 2 on 3-pointers, along with two assists.

Jaquez’s second 3-pointer put him over 1,000 points for his career.

Jaquez, who has missed time due to an ankle sprain and stomach ailment, played as the Heat’s fourth reserve Saturday.

He closed 6 of 9 from the field, with four assists and three rebounds.

— 4. Rotation readjustment: With reserve center Kevin Love back after missing Wednesday night’s victory in Charlotte with the back spasms that took him out of the first half of Tuesday night’s home loss to the Bucks, Kel’el Ware again was out of the rotation.

Ware, the 7-foot first-round pick out of Indiana, had played in the previous two games, including the clinching free throws against the Hornets.

Remaining out of the mix was former starting power forward Nikola Jovic, who did not play the previous two games after appearing in the first 14.

In his new reserve role, guard Terry Rozier added 12 points for the Heat off the bench.

— 5. No Cup: The Heat were eliminated from advancing in the NBA Cup even before Friday night’s opening tip, as a result earlier in the day of the Atlanta Hawks’ victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The NBA next week, likely after the conclusion of play Tuesday, the final night of Cup group play, will add two games to the Heat’s schedule to compensate for failing to advance to the Cup quarterfinals, one home and one away, during the windows of Dec. 12-13 for one game and Dec. 15-16 for the other.

When it comes to the games added for the Heat, the optimal schedule would be at one of the East cities currently scheduled to be visited only once (Detroit, New York or Cleveland) and home to one of the teams currently scheduled to only visit once (Toronto, Brooklyn or Chicago).