Coming off a three-day rest flooded with persistent, pestering trade rumors surrounding the franchise star, the Miami Heat slouched through the first 15 minutes to the lowly Toronto Raptors.
A Jamal Shead 3-pointer from the left wing put the Raptors ahead by 16 with 8:37 left in the first half. That was before Dru Smith, Nikola Jovic–making his first appearance in eight games–and Bam Adebayo provided a second-quarter spark, including scoring 15 minutes over the final two minutes before halftime to take an eight-point lead.
From there, the Miami Heat didn’t look back, securing a 114-104 win over the Raptors, leading by as much as 20 points in the second half. Miami outscored Toronto 89-63 in the final 33 minutes, generating more efficient offense while doing a better job walling off the paint after the Raptors scored 28 of their first 35 within that area.
Tyler Herro put together another very efficient outing, posting a game-high 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting and 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Bam Adebayo followed suit with 21 points, 16 rebounds and five assists on 8-of-17 shooting in 35 minutes.
Jovic contributed with 14 points–11 in the first half–on 4-of-5 shooting. Dru Smith posted 11 points, three rebounds, three assists and one steal while Jimmy Butler had 11 points, five rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes.
Thursday’s win puts the Heat at 13-10, giving them their first four-game win streak since February; Toronto, meanwhile drops to an abysmal 7-19. Miami shot 48.2 percent from the floor and 40.6 percent from 3-point range. Though its free-throw shooting left plenty to be desired, going just 21-of-32 (65.6 percent), its worst free-throw shooting game of the season (min. 25 FTA).
Gradey Dick led the Raptors with 22 points on 8-of-19 shooting. Jakob Poeltl, who came off the bench initially due to back spasms, scored 16 points in 27 minutes off the bench; RJ Barrett posted a 13-point, 11-rebound, 10-assist triple-double, the second of his career.
Overall, it was a remarkable bounce-back effort for the Heat after a very sluggish start–one they desperately needed, even against a below-average team, amid the smoke surrounding the team over the past 48-72 hours.
Now, it will have another prolonged break before looking to earn its fifth-straight win over the Detroit Pistons Monday inside Little Caesars Arena.
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Interesting article on the state of the Miami heat.
https://allucanheat.com/miami-heat-offense-rolling-despite-ignoring-key-position?utm_campaign=FanSided+Daily&utm_source=FanSided+Daily&utm_medium=email&sc=e0273490fd355e2c28bdb25751d41af65a4dd80936ff00a80be9866c97887955
one thing i like about terry his offense is bad pretty much every night but hes doing other things now that i havent seen him do since being here.playing dirty getting some offensive rebounds.playing tougher d.dru is def the better player of the 2 but terry is helping winning in other ways besides scoring
Dru and Jovic brought as back into the game, Bam and Herro finished the job.
Good team effort.
Heat played just 23 games, most teams played 24-26, and Heat are still mostly off till 20th December. When they will play all those games?
Another good team win. It’s not the individual stats that count. Its the final score. Spo truly has a Swiss Army knife at his disposal with so much depth. If one player is cold, try someone else. It worked tonight with Smith and Jovic. The team has been very enjoyable to watch the past 4 games. I hope it continues and that they continue to improve. Sure would like to see Ware and Johnson get some playing time against Detroit.
Congrats Heaters. Another solid win. Help from Nico was a highlite.
Checked the sked, 3 days rest then Pistons then another 3 days rest then a back-to-back vs Orl and OKC?! Why?!
jimmy sent silver a nice fat check