Tuesday night the HEAT hosted the Raptors in Miami for the 2nd time in 8 nights. Both teams started the season really hot, scoring a lot & pushing offensive pace. Now, both teams are now looking to get back to winning. Miami comes into tonight losing 8 of last 10 games. The HEAT were without Herro, Larson & Jovic. The Raptors held out Rj Barrett & Jacob Poeltl.

Toronto came out hot from 3 & pushing offensive pace. Miami couldn’t make a shot for a good amount of the first quarter, starting 1 of 12 FGs & finding themselves down 16-3 to start the first quarter. They snapped out of it & made it close as Jaime Jaquez jr was 3 of 3 & kept the Heat afloat in the 1Q, but the Bam Adebayo offensive struggles continue.

It was Raptors 21, Heat 16 after one. 

The HEAT offense just wasn’t there & with 8:01 left in the second period, no HEAT starter had more than . . . three points.

Ira Winderman had a Miami HEAT Offensive Suggestion: run a play. Both teams were taking lots of 3s. Miami was settling on offense for too much 1 on 1 isolation ball which Toronto was stopping frequently.

At halftime the score was Raptors 51, Heat 44. Miami couldn’t seem to get into much shooting rhythm going 4 of 18 on 3s & giving up 10 turnovers. It was Miami’s lowest scoring 1st half of the season.

In the 3Q, Toronto came out playing more physical & hitting shots while Miami was having trouble on offense. The Raptors were picking apart the HEAT defense by moving the ball unselfishly & converting at the basket & from 3.

Miami had limited offense in the 3Q & not many highlights.

Miami again went south at the end of the third period; for the third game in a row, & trailed the Raptors 82-67 going into fourth quarter. This happened in Boston, in New York & now again.

In the 4th quarter, the Raptors completely dominated the heat with physicality & offensive rebounds which created second chance opportunities & they were knocking down their 3s. Other than Jaime Jaquez jr, it’s was hard to find any HEAT players who played well.

Miami's offense again struggled for traction against good defense as Toronto pressured high, slowed it down and helped liberally in the paint.

It will get better, eventually, but how it gets better is how you learn what a team truly is.

Coup’s Takeaways:

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