The Heat received the Raptors on Thursday at the Kaseya Center, which didn’t have the full one he used to be a game recently rescheduled by the NBA, but he wasn’t anybody and was full of excitement.
The Miami team again showed that it was serious about its recovery and managed to go back twice to impose 114-104 on the Toronto quintet. With the win, he put the particular series in his favor 2-1.
It was the fourth consecutive victory for the Heat (13-10) who held firm in 5th place in the Eastern Conference, above the Bucks (13-11), and lurking over the New York Knicks (4 with 15-10) and the Orlando Magic (3rd with 17-10).
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The key of the match was undoubtedly the great defense, not forgetting, a good offensive (48.2%) with 13 triples.
But above all they won for the attitude of the players and the aggressiveness in every action of the match against some Raptors who do not deserve their 7-19 mark at all and be in the penultimate position.
Tyler Herro was Miami’s best with 23 points, including four triples, and remains the team’s spark plug.
Bam Adebayo woke up in the last quarter and finished with a double of 21 cartons and 16 rebounds, plus six assists.
Nikola Jovic played very well coming off the bench, was aggressive, and contributed 14 units with 2-2 in triples.
Jimmy Butler was on a controlling plan and left with 11 points and four assists. I’m happy about the win and the way we’re playing. “The aggressiveness and the way we’re throwing is helping us a lot,” Butler said.
If we’re getting better, it’s because we just have the ball. Dru Smith scored 11 cartons and as he keeps doing things well he has earned minutes in the rotation.
Our depth is important. Different boys have been able to step in and have a good impact,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said.
That’s important, if you can get a connected, committed team that contributes that can help.
For Toronto, who couldn’t count on Scottie Barnes, they singled out Gradey Dick with 22 points, Jakob Poelti with 16 from the bench, RJ Barrett and Ochai Agbaji with 13 each, and Davion Mitchell with 12 before dropping out of the game for six fouls.
The first half ended 58-51 in favor of the Heat after starring in a great comeback led by Herro with 12 units and Jovic with 11, including three triples at the end of the second quarter (50%), to counter Poelti’s 14 points.
The first quarter was won by Toronto 27-23 after starting well and taking a 9-point lead with 12 Dick units, after Miami went back with a 14-4 rally with 7 from Herro, shortly before the end.
Again the Heat started badly, which was not playing well, but did maintain the determination to go back to the game. He went from losing 25-41 to 41-43, with a rally of 16-2.
But that wasn’t all because Miami starred in another 15-2 run, including four consecutive triples at the end of Jovic’s partial (two), to win the second quarter 35-24 and go to rest with a 7-point lead.
The start of the third was extremely fought and Miami maintained the advantage, which became 12 cartons, until halfway.
At 3:27 was 20-20, but in the end, the Heat prevailed 31-25 after scoring 12 triples in 24 attempts, thus stretching the difference to 89-76.
With 13 units of advantage the quintet of the Capital of the Sun reached the last quarter, but little by little that advantage was extended to take 20 points of difference with 8 minutes to play, with Butler and Herro on the bench and with Adebayo reaching 17.
The Raptors, in a last-ditch effort, cut to 15 a distance at halftime and then 12 with 3:51 to play. I went in for a couple of minutes, suffocation and there was no time for more. In the end, Toronto took the 28-25 partial, but Miami reaped a new 10-a-side win.
