Heat drops to 1-3 with loss to Raptors. Takeaways from defeat and what went wrong
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 98-90 loss to the Toronto Raptors (2-2) on Monday night at FTX Arena to close its season-opening four-game homestand at a disappointing 1-3. The Heat now hits the road to begin a three-game West Coast trip on Wednesday against the Portland Trail Blazers:
The Heat’s offense simply wasn’t good enough.
Even with the Raptors shooting just 39.5 percent from the field, they found a way to win on Monday.
That’s because the Heat closed with just a season-low 90 points on a season-worst 34.9 percent shooting from the field and season-worst 8-of-34 (23.5 percent) shooting from three-point range. Miami failed to score more than 90 points in just five games last regular season.
“I don’t think anybody would have anticipated starting out with this home stretch that we would be 1-3,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s sometimes the nature of this league, it’s tough. You can’t just mail in victories, you have to earn them.”
The Heat’s fourth-quarter offense was especially rough, as it scored just 14 points on 6-of-20 (30 percent) shooting from the field and 2-of-9 (22.2 percent) shooting on threes while committing five turnovers in the period. Miami entered the final quarter ahead by five points, but those offensive struggles allowed Toronto to erase that deficit by winning the fourth quarter 27-14 to rally for the win.
“They jammed us up on a few possessions,” Spoelstra said when asked about the offense’s issues in Monday’s loss. “But we had some looks throughout the course of the game and we weren’t able to knock some of those ones down, some of the open ones.”
The Heat’s offense has been among the worst in the NBA through the first week of the schedule. Miami holds the third-worst offensive rating at 105.6 points scored per 100 possessions this season, with only the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers behind them in the rankings.
Jimmy Butler finished with a game-high 26 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting from three-point range and 8-of-9 shooting from the foul line, to go with eight rebounds and four assists.
But the rest of the Heat’s roster combined to total just 64 points on 21-of-68 (30.9 percent) shooting from the field and 6-of-31 (19.4 percent) shooting from three-point range on Monday.
Bam Adebayo recorded an inefficient 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the field, 10 rebounds and three assists.
Kyle Lowry closed with only seven points on 1-of-8 shooting from the field and 1-of-6 shooting on threes, three rebounds and two assists.
Max Strus scored six points on 3-of-14 shooting from the field and 0-of-8 shooting from deep.
Tyler Herro finished with 22 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the field and 2-of-9 shooting on threes while tying a career-high with 15 rebounds.
The Heat’s bench scored only 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field and 3-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc. Duncan Robinson was Miami’s highest-scoring reserve at 12 points.
“I don’t think the offense was that bad,” Butler said. “We missed some shots, yes. But overall, I think we moved the ball decently well. We probably could have had a couple more assists if we would have made a couple more shots. The game may have looked different.”
The Heat’s halfcourt defense was excellent on Monday, but it struggled to contain the Raptors in transition.
The bottom line is the Heat’s defense did enough to win, limiting the Raptors to 98 points on 39.5 percent shooting from the field.
Miami’s halfcourt defense was especially good, holding Toronto to only 69.5 points per 100 halfcourt plays. The NBA average is 94.4 points per 100 halfcourt plays.
But where Toronto was able to do damage was in transition. The Raptors closed with a big 27-13 edge in fast-break points.
Seven fast-break points in the fourth quarter helped Toronto pull away late. It also helped the Raptors total 27 points on 10-of-20 shooting (50 percent) shooting from the field in the fourth quarter despite their halfcourt struggles.
“It was devastating what they were able to do in transition,” Spoelstra said. “In a tightly contested game like this, that can be the difference.”
Spoelstra then looked down at the box score in the middle of his answer and noticed Toronto finished with nearly 30 fast-break points.
“Oh yeah, that’s the game,” Spoelstra said just before his post-game media session came to an end.
It hasn’t been a great defensive start for the Heat, but Monday was a step in the right direction. Miami owns the NBA’s 18th-best defensive rating at 110.7 points allowed per 100 possessions this season.
The Heat has not been able to survive the non-Adebayo minutes early this season.
The Heat outscored opponents by 4.2 points per 100 possessions with Adebayo on the court through the first three games. And Adebayo was also a positive on Monday, when he finished with a plus/minus of five in his 38 minutes against the Raptors.
But the minutes without Adebayo have been a nightmare for the Heat so far this season and that negative trend continued on Monday, when Miami was outscored by 13 points with Adebayo on the bench.
Opponents have now outscored the Heat by 30.2 points per 100 possessions with Adebayo not on the court this season.
Veteran Dewayne Dedmon has played most of the minutes at center while Adebayo has been on the bench, and they have not been pretty. Toronto outscored Miami by 13 points in the 10 minutes that Dedmon played on Monday.
So far this season, the Heat has been outscored by 25.5 points per 100 possessions with Dedmon on the court.
Defense has been Miami’s biggest issue with Dedmon in the game, posting a dismal defensive rating of 133 points allowed per 100 possessions when he has been on the court this season. That’s the worst on-court individual defensive rating on the roster.
It’s still early in the season, but one of the keys to long-term success for the Heat is to find a way to survive the 12 or so minutes Adebayo isn’t in the game.
Dedmon was successful in doing that in the previous two seasons after joining Miami as a free agent late in the 2020-21 season. The Heat outscored opponents by 17.1 points per 100 possessions with Dedmon the court in the 16 games he played with the Heat in 2020-21 and outscored opponents by 3.5 points per 100 possessions with Dedmon the court last season.
But Dedmon’s minutes haven’t been so positive this season.
The only other center on the Heat’s roster besides Adebayo and Dedmon, Omer Yurtseven, has yet to play this season because of an ankle injury.
Spoelstra had a fourth-quarter regret following Monday’s loss involving Butler.
After Butler’s big 12-point third quarter to help the Heat enter the final period with a 76-71 lead, he spent most of the fourth quarter on the bench.
Butler played the first 11:53 of the third quarter before being subbed out with 7.1 seconds left in the period with the Heat holding a five-point lead. By the time Butler re-entered the contest, there was only 3:38 left in the fourth quarter and the Raptors had pulled ahead by one point.
During that long Butler-less stretch that lasted 8:29, the Heat was outscored 15-9.
The Heat planned to sub in Butler earlier, sending him to the scorer’s table with about 6:20 left in the fourth quarter. But a long span without a stoppage of play had Butler waiting for nearly three minutes of game time before re-entering with 3:38 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“I didn’t have a timeout. That frustrated the heck out of me,” Spoelstra said of Butler’s long wait at the scorer’s table. “I almost considered taking a foul, not the take foul but in the half court. In retrospect, I probably should have. That was too much to have him sitting on that sideline, particularly that every possession really mattered.
“I thought we were getting decent execution and decent looks. But we also wanted Jimmy Butler in the game and we sent him to the table with enough time typically. The way things had gone earlier, I didn’t have any timeouts.”
The Heat actually had two timeouts left when Butler was sent to the scorer’s table and the team eventually called both — one with 50.4 seconds to play and another with 22.6 seconds to play.
But not even Butler could save the Heat, as the Raptors closed the game on a 12-5 run after he re-entered the game late in the fourth quarter.
Monday represented an NBA milestone for Heat forward Jamal Cain.
The Heat made Cain active against the Raptors. It’s the first time Cain has ever been active for an NBA game, not counting the preseason.
But Cain is still waiting for his first NBA minutes. He did not play on Monday despite being in uniform and made active.
Cain was inactive for the first three games of the season as Miami navigated the NBA’s two-way contract rules. Cain, who was a bright spot for the Heat this preseason, is only eligible to be on the Heat’s active list for as many as 50 regular-season games as part of his two-way deal.
Following Monday’s contest, Cain can only be active for 49 more games this regular season. Those on two-way deals are not eligible to take part in the NBA playoffs.
Cain’s move to the active list on Monday was mostly due to the Heat missing so many players.
Along with not having Nikola Jovic and Caleb Martin available as they served their one-game suspensions for their roles in Saturday’s on-court altercation, Miami also remained without Victor Oladipo (knee) and Yurtseven (ankle). That left the Heat with just 12 available players against the Raptors.
Strus started in Martin’s place on Monday.
This story was originally published October 24, 2022 at 10:06 PM.
