Heat’s playoff hopes take another hit in loss at Toronto

The Heat’s playoff hopes are approaching life support territory now, with Miami needing help from other teams to avoid missing postseason for the second time in three seasons.

The Heat could have made the playoffs by winning its final three games. Instead, the Heat blew a 13-point first half lead and then went cold in overtime of a 117-109 loss to Toronto on Sunday, its fourth consecutive defeat at a most inopportune time.

The Raptors outscored the Heat 14-6 in overtime.

The Heat now awaits results of three other meaningful games on Sunday: Charlotte at Detroit at 4 p.m., Brooklyn at Indiana at 5 p.m. and Orlando at Boston at 7:30 p.m.

In the wake of Miami’s loss, the Heat would be eliminated from playoff contention if Detroit and Brooklyn win Sunday, the NBA announced.

With the loss, the Heat – as of midafternoon Sunday – stood 1.5 games behind No. 8 Detroit and two games behind Orlando and Brooklyn.

The Heat must beat Philadelphia and win at Brooklyn and hope for help.

The Heat could have won it in regulation, but James Johnson missed a difficult three point shot from the corner, and Bam Adebayo’s basket off a rebound was ruled to have come after the clock expired.

Danny Green scored the first five points of overtime, before Dwyane Wade’s three cut Miami’s deficit to two. But an offensive rebound and basket from Pascal Siakam pushing Toronto’s lead to 110-106.

But Miami committed a shot-clock violation on its next possession, and Goran Dragic and Johnson both missed threes on Miami’s next possession.

Wade then missed a three with 1:03 left, leaving the deficit at four. Siakam then hit a three, making it 113-106 with 39 seconds left. A three from Dion Waiters cut the margin to 113-109, but the Raptors hit free throws to seal it.

The Heat’s bench kept Miami afloat with strong work in the second half and clutch play in the fourth quarter.

Wade, in perhaps the final days of his final season, was once again invaluable, with seven in the fourth quarter and a three in overtime on a 21-point game. Wade hit four of six from three-point range.

Johnson scored 10 of his 18 in the fourth quarter and added four rebounds and five assists.

Hassan Whiteside scored 14 points in the first half, then had three rebounds and a blocked shot in the fourth to close with 14 points and 9 rebounds.

But Adebayo replaced him for the final five minutes and overtime. Adebayo had 13 boards and played decent defense on Leonard, when those two were matched up, but shot 2 for 7.

In fact, all of the Heat’s starters shot poorly.

Dion Waiters scored 17, but shot just 6 for 16. Goran Dragic (nine points) was 4 for 12. Justise Winslow had 15 points but shot 6 for 18.

Kawhi Leonard had only 9 points on 3 for 9 shooting midway through the third quarter but closed with 22.

And Norman Powell scored 23 off the bench on 7 for 7 shooting.

The Heat stormed ahead 49-36, then survived a 10-0 Raptors run to go to the half ahead 57-50 and led 79-78 after three.

Miami fell to 2-15 against the top five teams in the East and is assured of having a losing record for only the second time in the past 11 seasons and first time since going 37-45 in 2014-15.

This story was originally published April 7, 2019 at 2:33 PM.