Being in first place must feel exciting if you’re a Miami Heat fan. When you’re on top, everything goes well. Now, four wins in a row for the hot Heat, including three straight on the road.
Down, but not out!
The Miami Heat (51-28) evened the score against the Toronto Raptors (45-33), and they did just that at the Scotiabank Arena with a 114-109 victory.
Max Strus, the 26-year-old, led the Heat with 23 points. Another contribution came from Victor Oladipo, who nailed a season-high 21 points, Tyler Herro’s 18 points, and Bam Adebayo’s 16 points and nine rebounds.
However, the return of Kyle Lowry to Toronto turned into succession. Lowry invested 16 points into the ballgame along with 10 assists and six rebounds.
First Half
Heading into Sunday night’s game, the Heat were not going to have the presence of Jimmy Butler (toe injury), Dewayne Dedmon (ankle injury), P.J. Tucker (knee injury), and Gabe Vincent (toe injury). So, Markieff Morris recorded his first start of the season.
In the first quarter of play, Kyle Lowry led Miami with eight points, and Markieff Morris netted seven. Miami had extreme difficulty against Fred VanVleet, who had 17 first-half points, and was 6-6 from the free throw line. The Raptors closed out the first quarter with a 34-28 lead as the shot choices for the Heat proved to be the difference by going 11-23 from the field and 3-9 behind the arch.
As the second quarter rolled on, sixth man star Tyler Herro stepped up his transitional game as he tallied 11 points. Also, Victor Oladipo, Lowry, and Adebayo garnered nine points. The Heat were just all over the place on the hardwood taking twenty threes, and making only six of them.
Miami ended the first half of play with five free throws, and went 17-40 field goal wise. The Raptors were able to out-rebound Miami 29-23 at the glass. Simply, Miami needed to take better care of the basketball and get themselves going in the second half, being down 55-45 at halftime.
Second Half Comeback? Miami Said Yes!
The intensity of the Miami Heat certainly picked up, leading to Miami’s victory. Tyler Herro, Max Strus, and Victor Oladipo had a large part in the scoring department. And Max Strus’ four blocks and Bam Adebayo’s rim protection put the icing on the cake.
Miami will travel back home to the FTX Arena as they will go onto the hardwood versus the Charlotte Hornets (40-38), who are ninth in the Eastern Conference Standings.
Will Miami take down Charlotte? Or, will the Hornets sting pass the Heat? Simply put, Miami will have their hands full with LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, Terry Rozier, and Kai Jones. It should be a good one.