Heat’s misery continues in blowout loss to Raptors, falling back to .500. Takeaways and details
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 112-91 loss to the Toronto Raptors (18-13) on Tuesday night at Kaseya Center, falling to 2-8 in December. The Heat (15-15) now enters a two-day break before hitting the road to take on the Hawks on Friday in Atlanta:
After a strong start to the season that had the Heat seven games above the .500 mark on Dec. 1, the Heat is back at .500 before Christmas.
The Heat’s rough stretch continued with Tuesday’s 21-point loss to the Raptors, as it has now dropped eight of the last nine games after its strong 14-7 start to the season.
The Heat’s once high-scoring and fast-paced offense again was underwhelming, totaling a season-low 91 points on 40.2 percent shooting from the field and 8-of-30 (26.7 percent) shooting on threes while committing 18 turnovers. It’s just the second time this season that the Heat has been held under 100 points, and the Heat also posted a season-low offensive rating of 95.8 points scored per 100 possessions on Tuesday.
“This is not what I would have predicted. I thought we were ready,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the team’s third straight home loss. “I thought we had a good session this morning. I thought coming off of our last two games, on the road, even though there were losses, there were way more good things than negative things.”
The Heat trailed for the entire second half, falling behind by as many as 23 points. It marked the Heat’s second home loss to the Raptors in a nine-day span.
Both teams struggled to make shots in an ugly and low-scoring first half.
The Heat opened the game 1 of 12 from the field and 0 of 5 on threes, finding itself in an early 16-3 hole.
The Raptors then ran into their own shooting issues, allowing the Heat to claw its way back into the game and even take a lead in the second quarter.
But the Raptors still managed to enter halftime with a 51-44 advantage despite shooting just 20 of 46 (43.5 percent) from the field and 6 of 21 (28.6 percent) on threes and committing 10 turnovers because the Heat was even worse. During its lowest scoring first half of the season, the Heat shot just 16 of 45 (35.6 percent) from the field and 4 of 18 (22.2 percent) on threes while committing 10 turnovers.
“It was a lifeless start,” Spoelstra said. “And then we just felt like we were digging back the rest of the game. You have to credit Toronto. They came out with a force and speed in this game that we couldn’t get a grapple on.”
In the second half, the Heat continued to miss a lot of its shots. But the Raptors started making more shots in the second half to break open the game and cruise to the win.
The Raptors outscored the Heat 61-47 in the second half behind 52.5 percent shooting from the field and 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) shooting from three-point range in the final two quarters.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored a team-high 21 points for the Heat in 36 minutes off the bench. Norman Powell added 17 points for the Heat, but shot 6 of 17 from the field and 1 of 6 on threes.
Scottie Barnes scored a game-high 27 points for the Raptors.
The Heat has gone from the league’s second-highest scoring team (123.6 points per game) and fastest-paced team (106.1 possessions per 48 minutes) through the end of November to the 25th-ranked scoring team (110.6 points per game) and 13th-fastest team (100.8 possessions per 48 minutes) in December.
“We haven’t had many of these,” Spoelstra said of the blowout loss. “It was [a 16-point loss to] Sacramento and this, where we really just didn’t feel like we brought that competitive force. I’ve got to figure out why and then correct it.”
Heat center Bam Adebayo continues to struggle to make shots.
The Heat needs its max player to produce on both ends of the court, but Adebayo is really struggling on the offensive end at the moment.
Adebayo’s issues continued on Tuesday, finishing the defeat with nine points on 4-of-11 shooting from the field, 0-of-2 shooting on threes and 1-of-3 shooting from the foul line. He missed six of his first seven shots before making three of his final four shots in the loss.
Adebayo is now averaging 11.8 points per game on 18-of-48 (37.5 percent) shooting from the field and 0-of-8 shooting from three-point range over his last four appearances.
Adebayo already entered Tuesday shooting a career-low 46.9 percent from the field this season, and that efficiency has continued to trend in the wrong direction recently.
“It sucks,” Adebayo said of his recent shooting slump. “But it’s part of the NBA, it’s a long season. So fighting through whatever I’ve got to fight through, figure out how I can impact winning and do that instead of focusing on shots not falling. Just play basketball and shots will eventually start falling.”
With guard Tyler Herro again out, the Heat went with the same starting lineup for the third time in four games.
The Heat opened Tuesday’s contest with a lineup of Davion Mitchell, Powell, Andrew Wiggins,Adebayo and Kel’el Ware. The only time that the Heat hasn’t gone with this starting group in the last four games was in Friday’s loss to the Boston Celtics, when Mitchell and Wiggins were unavailable because of injuries.
But this lineup has struggled so far. Entering Tuesday, the Mitchell-Powell-Wiggins-Adebayo-Ware combination had been outscored by 10.4 points per 100 possessions in 68 minutes together this season.
Tuesday wasn’t any better, as this lineup was outscored 16-3 to begin the game before the Heat made its first substitution of the night.
Ware’s double-double streak also ended at three games, finishing Tuesday’s loss with five points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes.
It remains to be seen how Spoelstra will handle Herro’s eventual return to the starting group. Will Ware return to a bench role? Would Mitchell or Wiggins move to the bench?
But there’s still little clarity on Herro’s status moving forward, as he missed his fifth straight game and has now missed seven of the last eight games with what is being labeled by the Heat as a “right big toe contusion.”
Along with missing Herro, the Heat was also without Nikola Jovic (right elbow contusion/laceration), Pelle Larsson (left ankle sprain) and Terry Rozier (not with team) on Tuesday.
“I’m very encouraged by the progress,” Spoelstra said before Tuesday’s game when asked about the recoveries of Herro, Jovic and Larsson. “They’re not ready to go tonight. We don’t have a timeline, but I’m seeing what they’re doing. I don’t need to get into all the details of what I’m seeing, but I came in yesterday and I was encouraged.”
The Raptors played without RJ Barrett (right knee sprain) and Jakob Poeltl (low back strain) against the Heat.
Rookie guard Kasparas Jakucionis played in his fourth straight game after logging just 53.7 seconds in the NBA through the Heat’s first 26 games of the season.
The Heat’s injury issues created an opportunity for Jakucionis to play during the Heat’s recent trip and he has remained in the rotation.
The 19-year-old played his first meaningful NBA minutes in Thursday’s win over the Nets in Brooklyn, and then made his first NBA start in Friday’s loss to the Celtics in Boston with Mitchell and Wiggins unavailable for that contest. Jakucionis showed off his intriguing skill set in his first NBA start, totaling 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 shooting from three-point range, six rebounds and four assists in 36 minutes in Friday’s loss to the Celtics.
Even with Mitchell and Wiggins back, Jakucionis remained in the Heat’s bench rotation for Sunday’s road loss to the New York Knicks. But he was quiet in that one, totaling two points and two rebounds in 12 minutes.
In his fourth straight game in the Heat’s rotation, Jakucionis finished Tuesday’s loss with seven points, two rebounds and one steal in 28 minutes off the bench.
Jakucionis, who was selected by the Heat with the 20th overall pick in this year’s draft, was part of a four-man Heat bench rotation on Tuesday that also included Jaquez, Dru Smith and Simone Fontecchio. Miami then emptied its bench late in the lopsided defeat.
Tuesday was a milestone night for Smith.
Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the day that Smith suffered a torn Achilles that cut his season short last season.
One year later, Smith is an important part of the Heat’s bench rotation. He and Ware are the only two Heat players who have played in each of the first 30 games this season.
On the one-year anniversary of his Achilles injury, Smith closed Tuesday’s loss with 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 shooting on threes and 3-of-3 shooting from the foul line, two rebounds, two assists and two steals in 17 minutes off the bench.
Smith’s rapid recovery from this serious injury is just part of his improbable NBA journey.
This story was originally published December 23, 2025 at 10:03 PM.
