Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro lead Heat past Raptors, 114-104

Ira Winderman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Dec 12, 2024

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MIAMI — Jimmy Butler made sure this wouldn’t be hair raising, sporting tightly woven orange braids.

So the Miami Heat settled for a bit of four-play, extending their winning streak to four with a 114-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night at Kaseya Center.

Avenging a loss the previous time the teams met, the Heat rode the 21 points and 16 rebounds from center Bam Adebayo and the 23 points of guard Tyler Herro and strong supporting contributions to close out a perfect four-game homestand.

While it wasn’t always artistic, at least beyond Butler’s hair (more on that later), the Heat overcame an early 16-point deficit to take advantage of Toronto being without Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley, among others.

The previous time the teams met, the Raptors took a 119-116 decision Dec. 1 at Scotiabank Arena, on a night they scored 68 points in the paint. That again proved problematic, with the Raptors this time closing with 56.

But there was enough in response to keep the Heat on a roll, including 11 points, five rebounds and four assists from Butler; and solid bench boosts from Dru Smith and Nikola Jovic, who closed with 14 points.

Five Degrees of Heat from Thursday night’s game:

— 1. Game flow: The Raptors led 27-23 at the end of the first period, moved to a 16-point lead in the second period, but the Heat then rallied to go up 58-51 at halftime.

The Heat moved to a 12-point third-quarter lead from there, before holding an 89-76 advantage at the start of the fourth.

From there, the Heat pushed their lead to 20 early in the final period, only to see the Raptors push back within 12.

That’s when Adebayo stepped up and helped put it away.

— 2. Hair raising: Having previously played recent games (if perhaps only by coincidence) in braids of the colors of teams rumored to be desired trade destinations, such as red (Houston Rockets), blue (Dallas Mavericks) and yellow (Golden State Warriors), Butler this time showed up with orange braids, a prominent color of the latest rumored destination, the Phoenix Suns.

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra before the game put aside concern of trade speculation distracting his roster.

“This is this profession,” Spoelstra said. “You can’t get sick at sea over some narratives that are going out there. That’s going to happen in every organization at some point during a season.”

— 3. Rotation alteration: With the Raptors getting into the paint and at the rim at the outset with seeming impunity, Spoelstra summoned 6-foot-10 Jovic off the bench for the first time in nine games, inserting him as the fifth Heat reserve, in the second quarter.

It was Jovic’s first action since Nov. 24. He entered at power forward but then moved to center when Adebayo went to the bench in the second period. That was after Kevin Love initially played as backup center in the opening period.

— 4. Doubling up: Active on the boards all night, Adebayo closed with the 205th double-double of his career, tying him with Alonzo Mourning for second on the Heat all-time list. Only Rony Seikaly (221) has more.

Playing in attack mode, Adebayo also extended his career-best streak of consecutive games with at least five assists to 10, closing with six.

His night also included a 3-point conversation early in the fourth quarter.

— 5. Waiting game: After a three-day break before Thursday night’s game, the Heat now have another three-day break before Monday night’s road game against the Detroit Pistons.

The stretch of only two games over an 11-game span comes as a result of the league clearing portions of the schedule for the NBA Cup.

Because the Heat failed to advance to the knockout stage of the Cup, the games against the Raptors and Pistons were added a week ago.