First Half:

In an important game with real postseason implications, the Miami Heat came out strong with Jovic continuing to show his spectacular improvement. The young Toronto Raptors didn’t make things easy though, with Grady Dick and former “Heatle” Kelly Olynyk making this-must win difficult early on.

Herro, Jimmy all got involved early – but some terrible decision making early on the offensive end had them trailing for much of the first quarter. The Raptors’ defense was impressive early, as they doubled Bam and Jimmy very early to deter them from heating up. It didn’t work with Jimmy scoring some great buckets to get the Heat out ahead.

The Heat reserves were rather lifeless early on, struggling to score. Thankfully Jaquez Jr., would show signs of life on the second unit as he slashed to the rim and played aggressive defense. Jaime’s one man offensive push kept things tied – but because we can’t have nice things, we’d see Kevin Love head to the locker room with an apparent injury before the second (he would not return).

Jimmy who heard the sweet sound of an official’s whistle for the first time since 2023, was finally able to draw some fouls again and play his brand of basketball to get to the line. However, Miami’s inability to hit a shot outside of 5 feet put them behind once again as the Raptor’s hit looks from Broward County and Bruce Brown drew Steve Nash comparisons from the Sportsnet broadcasting crew.

The Heat must have sensed the collective frustrations of its fanbase, because the team suddenly remembered that Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes weren’t actually playing and put together a 36-13 run. Miami was able to put together a 17 point lead off some impressive plays from Wright, Herro and Bam. This one was still the best though:

The Heat would enter the second half up 21.

Second Half:

Miami was aggressive to start the second half  working to cement its lead. The Raptors played aggressive defense as it attempted to chip away and spark a comeback – cutting the deficit to 14. Strong play from Caleb Martin, Haywood Highsmith, Thomas Bryant and of course Tyler Herro kept the Heat comfortably ahead by 23 heading into the fourth quarter.

Like in most games this season, Miami’s offense stalled to start the fourth quarter but Thomas Bryant and Jaime Jaquez Jr. got things rolling once again. With Herro and Jaime anchoring the offense, and the reserves playing with aggression the Heat were able to rest Bam and Jimmy the entire quarter as Miami cruised to a win and an ambiguous playoff seed (at the time of writing, things were undecided). 

This was a great win to close an uneven regular season.