Heat reaches midway point of season at 24-17 after blowout loss in Toronto. Takeaways

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 121-97 loss the Toronto Raptors (16-25) at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night to close its quick two-game trip at 1-1. The Heat (24-17) now returns home for a short one-game stay in Miami to face the Atlanta Hawks on Friday on Udonis Haslem Jersey Retirement Night:

The Heat’s run of dominant defensive performances ended Wednesday after a nightmarish first half.

Even with the Raptors in a state of flux after trading two-time All-Star forward Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday, the Heat looked like the team in disarray.

After holding three straight opponents under the 100-point mark, the Heat allowed the Raptors to finish with 121 points.

The Heat trailed by double digits essentially from start to finish, as the Raptors opened the game on a 13-2 run and ended the first quarter with a 23-point lead behind 7-of-10 shooting from three-point range.

It only got worse for the Heat, as the Raptors’ lead ballooned to 36 points in the second quarter before entering halftime with a huge 78-43 lead.

That 35-point halftime hole set a new franchise record for the largest halftime deficit in Heat history.

“I can’t say I would have predicted that from our prep this morning or arriving to the arena,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the lopsided first half. “It just happened. It was an avalanche at the beginning of the game. Our starters definitely did not set the tone for the game and then it just proceeded to get worse as that first half went on.”

The 78 points allowed in the first half fell five points short of the franchise record for most first-half points allowed by the Heat. That was set by the Milwaukee Bucks, when they totaled 83 first-half points against the Heat in December 2020.

The Raptors dominated the first half behind scorching three-point shooting, making 14 of 22 (63.6 percent) threes in the first two quarters. The Heat shot just 1 of 16 (6.3 percent) from three-point range in the first half.

That had Toronto entering halftime with an eye-opening 42-3 advantage from behind the arc.

“I can go across the board in terms of disposition, glitches, attention to detail and then finishing plays,” Spoelstra said. “We just didn’t have any of that kind of spirit that we’ve shown the last three games.”

Spoelstra pointed to the Heat’s transition defense and on-ball defense as two of the team’s biggest issues on that end of the court on Wednesday.

“Those two areas we’ve been focusing on and we’ve been making some progress with that,” Spoelstra said. “Tonight it would be tough to notice that we made any progress. That was probably our worst game in both areas tonight.”

Heat guard Tyler Herro elaborated, saying: “I think it starts with on-ball. But then also off the ball, guys being active in their shrink spots in their help positions. Not allowing their guys to see open elbows, open lanes to drive. I thought we did a good job of that last game, but it just didn’t carry over to tonight.”

RJ Barrett (17 points in the first half), Gary Trent Jr. (16 points in the first half), Immanuel Quickley (12 points in the first half) and Scottie Barnes (11 points in the first half) each outscored every member of the Heat’s leading trio of Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler and Herro.

Adebayo finished the first half with four points on 2-of-6 shooting from the field, Butler finished the first half with 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field in his second game back from injury, and Herro finished the first half with seven points on 3-of-12 shooting from the field.

The Heat allowed 166 points per 100 possessions in Wednesday’s first half, which went down as its second-worst defensive rating for any half this season. The only one worse was when the Heat allowed the Pacers to score 79 second-half points on Dec. 2.

“They were making shot after shot,” Butler said. “But I mean, we didn’t really make them miss and then we weren’t making shots. So it’s always tough when you dig yourself a hole like that with a squad that can score the ball as well as they can. The game gets ugly very quickly.”

The Heat made a big run in the second half, but it was too late.

After being outscored by 35 points in the first half, the Heat began the second half on a 21-5 run to cut the deficit to 19 points just seven minutes into the third quarter.

The Heat won the third quarter 30-16, but still entered the final period trailing by 21.

The Heat kept pushing, starting the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to just 13 with 8:46 to play.

“There were a lot of things that were better in terms of the on-ball defense,” Spoelstra said of Wednesday’s second half. “There was more of a commitment to take that challenge.”

But that’s the closest the Heat got, as the Raptors responded with a game-sealing 23-9 run to extend their lead back up to 27 with 2:21 remaining.

“We got it to 13 and then made a couple mistakes that led to threes and then it went to 20 from there,” Spoelstra said. “Once we got it to 13, we had a chance. I just felt that we needed to get it to single digits.”

The Heat started 1 of 16 from three-point range and finished the loss 6 of 28 (21.4 percent) from deep.

Miami, which entered Wednesday with the NBA’s fifth-ranked team three-point percentage this season at 38.2 percent, shot just 14 of 59 (23.7 percent) from behind the arc during this two-game trip.

The Raptors, which entered with the NBA’s 23rd-ranked team three-point percentage this season at 35.6 percent, closed the win 20 of 38 (52.6 percent) from three-point range. The 20 made threes are a season-high for Toronto.

“That’s very low on my list of priorities,” Spoelstra said when asked about the Heat’s three-point shooting struggles in the last two games. “I thought we got some good clean looks, actually to start both games. And our game does not need to be dependent on whether we make threes or not to be able to defend.”

Adebayo, Butler and Herro each scored a team-high 16 points for the Heat in the loss. Adebayo shot 7 of 13 from the field, Butler shot 6 of 11 from the field and Herro shot 7 of 20 from the field.

The Raptors were led by Trent, who scored 28 points on 8-of-9 shooting on threes. Barrett added 26 points, and Barnes contributed 20 points, five rebounds and eight assists.

The Raptors won while missing Siakam, Christian Koloko (illness), Markquis Nowell (G League), Jakob Poeltl (sprained left ankle) and Otto Porter Jr. (right knee sprain).

The Heat was without two rotation players on Wednesday, as Jaime Jaquez Jr. (strained left groin) and Kevin Love (left knee contusion) missed the game.

The Heat continues to use second-year forward Nikola Jovic in a starting role.

After logging just 48 total minutes of playing time during four appearances in the Heat’s first 30 games this season, Jovic made his eighth straight start on Wednesday.

The Heat went with a starting lineup of Kyle Lowry, Herro, Butler, Jovic and Adebayo for the second consecutive game.

Jovic, 20, finished the loss with 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists and one block in 21 minutes.

Jovic’s best stretch of the night came in the third quarter, when he recorded eight points, six rebounds, one assist and one block in nine minutes while the Heat made their second-half push.

That stretch was enough for Jovic to close the 24-point loss with a positive plus-minus of plus 6.

Lowry returned to Toronto and again received love from Raptors fans.

Wednesday marked the fifth game that Lowry has played in Toronto since leaving the Raptors. With the loss, he fell to 2-3 in those games against his former team in his former NBA home.

Lowry ended the night with four points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field and 0-of-6 shooting on threes, two rebounds and three assists in 29 minutes.

Lowry, who spent nine consecutive seasons in Toronto before joining the Heat as a free agent in the summer of 2021, is considered one of the greatest players in Raptors history. He was a key part of the Kawhi Leonard-led Raptors team that won the NBA championship in 2019.

But the Raptors look very different from when Lowry was last with the organization. With the Raptors trading Siakam to the Indiana Pacers just hours before tip-off on Wednesday, Chris Boucher is the only player on the current Raptors roster who was also Lowry’s teammate when the Raptors won the 2019 NBA championship.

And even though Lowry is in his third season with the Heat, he remains beloved in Toronto. Lowry received a loud ovation from the Scotiabank Arena crowd when he was introduced as a starter before the game.

With a 24-17 record, the Heat reaches the midway point of the regular season at a 48-win pace.

That’s not a bad spot to be in, considering all the injuries the Heat has dealt with his season. The Heat entered Wednesday with the third-most missed games in the league this season due to injury at 134 games, according to Spotrac’s injury tracker.

For perspective, the Heat has won 48 or more games in 11 of its first 35 seasons of existence. The Heat went to the NBA Finals in four of those seasons and won the NBA championship in two of those seasons.

“We’re cool,” Butler said of where the Heat stands at the midway point of the regular season. “Obviously, we can be better. But we’d rather be seven games over .500 than seven games under .500. So we’ll be just fine.”