The Miami Heat and the Toronto Raptors resume their seasons on Wednesday night in Toronto after a brief break in the action for the remaining In-Season NBA tournament teams. The Heat come into this matchup with a record of 11-9. The Raptors are 9-11 on the season and have dropped six of their last 10 games. The opening tap for Wednesday is scheduled for 7:30 PM EST.
Temps Cooling The Miami Heat have been an inconsistent team to start the year. Last year’s Eastern Conference representatives in the NBA Finals, the Heat have gone just 11-9 thus far as they try to regain the magic that led them through the top two teams in the conference last year before falling to Denver in the Finals. On Saturday night, the Heat ran into the NBA’s best offense and were run over by an amazing display of shooting in a 144-129 loss. The Pacers would finish the game shooting 66% from the floor, good for second-best in franchise history. It also marked the best shooting percentage the Heat have ever given up.Jimmy Butler led the way for the Heat with 33 points while Caleb Martin added 18. The two teams ended up splitting back-to-back matchups with the Heat winning on Thursday night. “You have to credit Indiana,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “You took out their best player, the guy that drives this offense, and they didn’t slow down one bit.”
The Heat come into this matchup with the 17th-ranked scoring offense in the NBA. They are 14th in field goal percentage and an impressive 3rd in 3-point field goal percentage. The Heat have not been their usual dominant selves on the defensive end this season. They rank 12th in points allowed per game but just 23rd in defensive field goal percentage and 26th in 3-point defense. The Heat are, as always, careful with the basketball as they rank 7th in the league in turnovers per game. They are, however, just 29th in the league in total rebounds.
Important Injuries: Josh Richardson, SG, and F Haywood Highsmith are both day-to-day. SG Tyler Herro and C Bam Adebayo are not in.
Returning to Work
On Wednesday night, the Toronto Raptors will play again in an attempt to reverse their recent bad luck. The Raptors enter this game having lost three of their previous four games, most recently on Friday night, 119-106 against the Knicks. The Knicks offence had over 30 assists and great scoring from the bench for almost perfect play on the evening. In actuality, the Raptors’ bench was outscored 52-25 by the Knicks’ bench during the game. Scottie Barnes scored 29 points to lead Toronto, and Pascal Siakam added 21 points. The Raptors’ three-game home winning streak came to an end with the loss.
Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic stated, “They were able to spread the ball to the wings and continue moving the ball to create good looks.”
On Wednesday, the Raptors will take on the Heat in an attempt to resume their winning ways at home. When it comes to scoring offence, Toronto is only ranked 23rd in the NBA. The Raptors are only 28th in 3-point field goal % and 23rd in field goal percentage. They are 13th in terms of points allowed per game this season, demonstrating improvement on the defensive end. Thus far, the Raptors rank 19th in 3-point defence and 17th in field goal defence. This season, the Raptors rank 19th in terms of turnovers committed per game. They are sixth in the NBA in terms of total rebounds per game, demonstrating above-average play on the glass.
On Wednesday night, the Raptors have a great chance to win again when they play the inexperienced Heat. Leading rebounder Bam Adebayo will not be with the Heat when they play Toronto, making them one of the NBA’s worst rebounding teams this year. Additionally, they keep playing even without Herro, one of the group’s leading scorers. With fastbreak opportunities off of Miami misses and second-chance opportunities on the glass, Toronto should be able to wear down the Pistons.
