In the end, Jimmy Buttler (back) was part of the Heat’s starting quintet on Friday, November 29 at the Kaseya Centers, but it’s expensive for him to take the win this Black Friday against the Raptors.
Thus, in a more contested match than expected, the Miami team was not playing its best basketball, but with a lot of heart, it imposed 121-111 on the Toronto quintet, which was undoubtedly a great rival.
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In this way, the Heat (9-8) climbed back to the 5th place in the Eastern Conference, before returning on Sunday the visit to the Raptors, in a match that also counted for the NBA Cup, although nothing was played anymore, after Atlanta’s victory over Cleveland, which left Miami automatically eliminated from the tournament.
The key was the aggressiveness deployed in the third quarter in which he turned the scoreboard around and got an advantage that in the end was definitive, which he maintained thanks to timely triples in the final part.
Miami’s defense had some guilt in the result, causing 19 losses of the ball that resulted in 27 points, with a regular attack (45.7) although with 21 triples (38.9%).
Jimmy Butler, despite playing suffering from back pains, was the best with 26 points, six assists, and two steals.
He was followed by Tyler Herro, who continued in attack mode, with 23 units, helped by his 4 triples.
Bam Adebayo this time completes his triple-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, plus three steals.
“When Bam started taking on more offensive responsibilities he has a lot of layers and puts a lot of stress on rivals,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. When Ban gets double digits, there are a lot of different things that can happen, so it’s important to keep the balance doing that and also keep it aggressive.
Jaime Jarquez was the leader of the second unit with 15 points, along with Terry Rozier who in his new role coming from the bench reached 12.
For Toronto, RJ Barrett with 25 points, Scottie Barnes with, Jakob Poelti with 24 others, and Ochai Agbaji with 13.
The first half ended Toronto 61-58, which won by very little the first two quarters, with a good offensive (65.53%) led by 15 points from Barnes, 14 from Poelti, and 13 from Barrett While an erratic Heat (25.9% in triples), with no creation in attack, only had Butler with double-dicks with 13.
The Raptors eventually took the fighter first quarter 21-20, having been in front most of the time, even by 7, and finishing better. Miami with 4:12 to score 16 with two frees from Butler (6) and went upstairs with Herro’s 7th point on a tray, but his second drive couldn’t keep the point.
The second, also won by Toronto 40-38, was limestone of the first, but more offensive. Again the Raptors went in front and again Butler tied with two frees (36-36) this time before halfway through, but after a couple of stretches and shrink the Raptors managed to go ahead and go to rest with three advantage.
The Heat with an Adebayo triple turned the score and then extended the lead to 10 points before the partial equator, the Raptors erased it, but the Heat again sets it, then stretched it to 15 units with Jarquez reaching 15. In the end Miami won the quarter 38-23 and finished in front 96-84.
Thus, with 12 points of advantage, the quintet of the Capital of the Sun reached the last quarter, and thanks to the fact that they began to enter the triples he was able to keep the difference. In the end, Toronto squeezed into defense and put on seven and a basket of three from Butler stretched it to 10, making more than the defense the time that closed the score.
And so it did. A triple from Adebayo with 30 seconds to the end put the last nails in the coffin of the Raptors and the Heat although he did not take the 27-25 partial if he took the triumph by 10 points of difference.
