Play-in bound Heat’s late-season issues continue in another ‘sobering’ loss to Raptors. Takeaways
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 128-114 loss to the Toronto Raptors (45-35) on Thursday night at Scotiabank Arena to drop to 0-2 on its three-game trip. The Heat (41-39) now travels to face the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena on Friday (7 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network Sun) to complete the trip and back-to-back set:
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra labeled Tuesday’s loss to the Raptors as “embarrassing.” Thursday’s loss to the Raptors wasn’t much better for the play-in tournament bound Heat.
After defeating the Heat by 26 points on Tuesday, the Raptors swept the back-to-back set in Toronto with a 14-point blowout victory over the Heat on Thursday.
With Thursday’s win, the Raptors also clinched a four-game sweep of their regular-season series against the Heat for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign.
Miami will finish the regular season with a combined 0-13 record against the Raptors (0-4), Orlando Magic (0-5) and Boston Celtics (0-4).
“It’s sobering. It’s definitely humbling,” Spoelstra said after Thursday’s defeat. “I don’t have the answers right now. We are searching. We went through everything yesterday, had a productive shootaround today. But we were just outclassed again.”
While the Heat was able to do more damage in the paint on Thursday with 58 paint points after scoring just 34 paint points in Tuesday’s loss, the Raptors dominated the possession battle on their way to another rout. Toronto closed with four more field-goal attempts and 20 more free-throw attempts than Miami behind a 10-6 edge in offensive rebounds and nine fewer turnovers than the Heat.
After the Heat pulled ahead by eight points in the first few minutes of the game, the Raptors took control of the contest and never let go.
Toronto closed the first quarter with a six-point lead and entered halftime with a 19-point advantage.
The Raptors built their lead up to 26 points early in the third quarter, but the Heat made a push to try to get back in the game.
The Heat exploded for a 33-13 run behind a barrage of three-pointers to cut the deficit to six with 3:11 left in the third quarter.
That’s the closest the Heat would get, though, as the Raptors closed the third quarter on a 13-7 run to enter the fourth quarter ahead by 12 points.
And the Raptors continued to add on to their lead, opening the fourth quarter on a 12-2 run to push their lead up to 22 points and regain full control of the game.
The Raptors ended up pulling ahead by as many as 25 points in the final minutes.
“We talked at half that this could be a signature comeback win for us. We haven’t had that happen all year,” Heat guard Tyler Herro said. “We got it to six and they ended up making some more plays to get it back to 10, 12, and then from there it went back to 20.”
Brandon Ingram led the Raptors with a game-high 38 points on 13-of-23 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting on threes and 10-of-11 shooting from the foul line.
Bam Adebayo was the only Heat player to reach the 20-point mark on Thursday, finishing with 24 points.
“I mean, all options are on the table now,” Spoelstra said when asked if he’ll look at making rotation or scheme changes in the final days of the regular season in hopes of sparking a turnaround. “We’ve got to look at everything. We have looked at a lot, but we’ll continue to work to find solutions.”
The Heat has now lost 10 of its last 13 games after reaching a season-best nine-game above .500 on March 12.
“We have to. There’s no other choice,” Spoelstra said of moving on to Friday’s matchup against the Wizards after two blowout losses in Toronto. “Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. Nobody cares, except for everybody in the locker room. We have a group that cares, but we can’t find a way to overcome right now. But we still have an opportunity to do that.”
Tuesday’s loss locked the Heat into the play-in tournament for the fourth straight year. Thursday’s loss made it more likely that it will need to win two straight play-in games to make the playoffs.
The Heat remains in 10th place in the Eastern Conference with a 41-39 record, and is now two losses behind the ninth-place Charlotte Hornets (43-37).
But with the eighth-place Philadelphia 76ers (43-37) losing to the Houston Rockets on Thursday night, there’s still an outside chance the Heat could move up to No. 8 in the East. But that’s the furthest that the Heat can move up the standings in the final days of the season.
However, a Heat loss in either of its two remaining games (at Wizards on Friday or vs. Atlanta Hawks on Sunday) would lock Miami into 10th place in the East.
One 76ers win (at Indiana Pacers on Friday and vs. Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday) and one Hornets win (vs. Detroit Pistons on Friday and at New York Knicks on Sunday) would also lock the Heat into 10th place in the East regardless of whether Miami wins its final two games or not.
Finishing in 10th place in the East would require the Heat to win two straight road games in the play-in tournament just to make the playoffs as the conference’s No. 8 seed.
Moving up to ninth-place would still require the Heat to win two straight play-in games to qualify for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed. But the difference is Miami would host the first play-in game as the ninth-place team.
“We just need to figure out how to get these next two [games],” Adebayo said. “We’ll worry about the play-in after that.”
How does the play-in tournament work?
The seventh-place team in each conference hosts the eighth-place team in a play-in game. The winner of this matchup earns the seventh playoff seed.
The ninth-place team in each conference hosts the 10th-place team in another play-in game. The loser of this matchup is eliminated from playoff contention, while the winner of this matchup goes on the road to take on the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in game for the right to the eighth playoff seed.
The teams that are eliminated in the play-in tournament before getting to the playoffs are seeded into the NBA Draft lottery based on regular-season record.
The play-in tourney will take place from next week from Tuesday through Friday.
The Heat has escaped the play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons to qualify for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed.
The Heat has just two games left to play this regular season. The final day of the NBA regular season is Sunday.
“We’ve got two games left,” Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. said. “We kind of know where we’re going to be. So we kind of just got to accept the reality of the situation and deal with it.”
The Heat couldn’t get the bounce-back win, but Adebayo produced a bounce-back individual effort. But the Heat’s defense continues to struggle.
Adebayo turned in one of his worst offensive performances of the season in Tuesday’s loss to the Raptors, finishing the defeat with just seven points on 2-of-13 shooting from the field, 1-of-7 shooting on threes.
It went down as Adebayo’s third-lowest scoring performance of the season. Tuesday also marked just the second time in Adebayo’s NBA career that he has scored seven or fewer points while taking at least 13 field-goal attempts in a game.
But Adebayo was much better on Thursday, finishing with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting on threes, 11 rebounds, eight assists, one steal and two blocks in 37 minutes.
It didn’t matter, though, because the Heat’s defense continued to struggle. Miami has given up more than 120 points in 11 of the last 13 games during this dismal 3-10 stretch.
Since March 14, the Heat has also posted the NBA’s 29th-ranked defensive rating during its current 3-10 stretch at 126.5 points allowed per 100 possessions. Only the Memphis Grizzlies have a worst defensive rating than the Heat during this span.
Miami had the NBA’s fourth-ranked defensive rating this season before this rough 13-game stretch.
“I don’t know,” Spoelstra said when asked to explain the Heat’s concerning defensive slippage. “I’ve never been a part of something like this. So we just have to put our heads together and commit. It’s about committing to doing really tough things in this league. Each night is a great challenge, and it’s not easy to defend in this league. And I can’t explain it. We had way more months of good habits than what we’ve seen the last three weeks. But these three weeks of really poor defensive games are overwhelming the rest of what we’ve done the rest of the season.”
Is it an effort problem or is it the Heat’s defensive system that needs to be adjusted?
“I don’t know,” Spoelstra said. “I have to look at all of it. I don’t have those answers right now. When we get beat up on the glass, that’s effort. It depends on the game. It’s like different things. We’re plugging holes in a dam right now. But we have to figure it out, and that’s what we’ll focus on right now.”
The Heat continued to stagger the minutes of its top two scorers, as Herro again started and Norman Powell again played off the bench.
Herro, who has played five games as a reserve this season, made his 27th start of the season on Thursday. The Heat went with a starting lineup of Davion Mitchell, Herro, Pelle Larsson, Andrew Wiggins and Adebayo for the fifth time in the last six games.
Herro finished the start with 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 shooting on threes, four rebounds and four assists in 28 minutes.
Powell, who was the Heat’s lone All-Star this season, played as a reserve for the second straight game and for the fifth time this season on Thursday. He started in his first 49 appearances this season before this recent stint as a reserve.
Powell, who is playing through a lingering right groin injury, recorded just seven points on 2-of-5 shooting from the field and 0-of-3 shooting on threes, zero rebounds and zero assists in 17 minutes off the bench.
Powell was part of a Heat bench rotation that also included Jaquez, Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakucionis and Keshad Johnson on Thursday. Miami then emptied its bench late in the lopsided loss.
With Herro and Powell playing in different units, their time on the court together was again limited. This is seemingly an intentional move by the Heat, as Miami had been outscored by 6.9 points per 100 possessions in the 257 minutes that Herro and Powell played together this season ahead of Thursday’s contest in Toronto.
The Heat was only without Nikola Jovic (left ankle sprain), Terry Rozier (not with team) and Dru Smith (right foot soreness) on Thursday.
The Raptors were missing Chucky Hepburn (right knee surgery recovery) and Trayce Jackson-Davis (illness).
The Heat came out with an intent to play with more physicality on Thursday after Tuesday’s blowout loss. But it resulted in early foul trouble for a pair of Heat starters and a lot of free throws for the Raptors.
Wiggins was called for his second foul with 5:40 left in the first quarter, and he didn’t re-enter the game until the start of the second quarter. But Wiggins was immediately called for his third foul just 20 seconds into the period and spent the rest of the first half on the bench.
Wiggins was limited to just seven first-half minutes., as Johnson got some rare early playing time with Wiggins in foul trouble.
Herro was called for his second foul with 4:28 left in the first quarter, and didn’t re-enter the game until there was 7:45 left in the second quarter. But a frustrated Herro was called for his third foul with 1:58 left in the period, and he was called for a technical foul after making a comment to an official on his way to the bench for the rest of the first half.
Herro was called for his fourth foul with 6:21 left in the third quarter, but he remained in the game without committing another foul until being subbed out with 2:39 left in the period.
Foul trouble limited Wiggins to 22 minutes and Herro to 28 minutes, which is below their season average. Both are averaging more than 30 minutes per game this season.
The foul trouble also helped to allow the Raptors to take 20 more free throws than the Heat and finish with a 27-8 edge in points scored at the foul line.
This story was originally published April 9, 2026 at 9:35 PM.
