Heat come up short against Raptors as Butler sits late, with greater challenges now ahead

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun Sentinel on Dec 1, 2024

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TORONTO — What you want when the next four are against the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers is some sort of cushion.

The Miami Heat squandered the opportunity Sunday night with a 119-116 loss at Scotiabank Arena to the lowly Toronto Raptors, a loss that dropped them to 9-9.

On this night, even mediocrity proved to be a struggle, which is all that might have been required against an opponent that improved to 6-15.

Instead, the Heat proved unable to double up on Friday night’s 121-111 victory over the Raptors at Kaseya Center, dominated in the paint by the Raptors and dominated on the scoreboard by Toronto forward R.J. Barrett, who closed with 37 points.

About the only enduring pushback from the Heat came from guard Tyler Herro who closed with 31 points, with Jimmy Butler somewhat coming around in the second half to finish with 17, forced to sit at the end with an apparent knee issue.

Otherwise, it was another night when Heat center Bam Adebayo was able to get everything going but his offense, closing with a season-high 20 rebounds along with seven assists but just 13 points.

And, with that, the Heat immediately have to move on to Monday night’s game against the Celtics at TD Garden, the site of where last season ended in the first round of the playoffs.

Five Degrees of Heat from Sunday night’s game:

1. Closing time: The Raptors led 34-24 after the first period and 65-60 at halftime.

The Heat went up three early in the third quarter, before the Raptors stormed back for a 98-87 lead going into the fourth.

Butler then returned with 7:10 to play and the Heat down 105-91.

From there, the Heat rallied within 113-107 with 2:14 to play on a Haywood Highsmith 3-pointer, with a Butler 3-point play drawing the Heat within 113-110 with 1:27 remaining.

The Raptors’ Scottie Barnes and Herro then traded 3-pointers, leaving the Heat down 116-113 with 64 seconds to play.

After Raptors 24-second violation, Herro was off on a potential tying 3-pointer, with a Barnes free throw making it 117-113 with 12.2 seconds to play.

2. Herro from the start: Herro scored 13 in the first quarter, at five of six from the field and three of four on 3-pointers.

He basically kept the Heat afloat early, with Adebayo zero for four from the field and Butler taking only one shot in the opening period, each scoreless in the first quarter.

Herro by the midpoint of the opening period had extended his personal best streak to 52 consecutive games with a 3-pointer, 17 games off Duncan Robinson’s franchise record, and had extended his career-best streak to 48 consecutive games scoring in double figures.

Later, with his fourth 3-pointer, Herro tied Tim Hardaway for second on the Heat all-time 3-pointers list, with 806, behind only Robinson.

Herro was up to 18 points by halftime.

3. Filling it up (sort of): Adebayo, even in the lack of early offense, again otherwise filled the box score.

Two games after achieving a double-double in assists and rebounds against the Hornets and one game after securing his eighth career triple-double on the final rebound of Friday night’s victory over the Raptors, Adebayo this time was up to 11 rebounds and six assists at halftime, but also just two of eight at that stage for four points.

The rebounding continued. The assists tapered. But the points never arrived in a needed quantity.

4. Limited lift: While Butler had filled out his scoring totals in recent games through working his way to the foul line, a lack of lift has become increasingly apparent.

During one second-quarter sequence Sunday, Butler, 35, was unable to rise for an alley-oop feed from Jaime Jaquez Jr. and then was credited for two of his five first-half points on a Raptors goaltend, when he attempted a reverse layup in transition that appeared to be off the mark.

By the third quarter, Butler reset his game with more of a bump-and-grind game, working his way to the line, until a jolt to the knee on his 3-point play took him out late.

5. Length limited: With first-round pick Kel’el Ware a late scratch due to foot tendinitis and with Nikola Jovic back in South Florida with an ankle sprain, the already undersized Heat were further undersized Sunday.

That had the Raptors attacking almost with impunity, closing with a 68-46 scoring edge in the paint.

For all of Adebayo’s defensive versatility off the ball, he proved no match for the 7-foot, 253-pound bulk of Raptors starting center Jacob Poeltl, who outscored him for the second time in as many games, this time with 17 points.

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