Miami Heat struggles continue with loss to Toronto Raptors

MIAMI — On the night before the night before Christmas, another lump of coal for the Miami Heat.

So make it eight losses in the past nine games and a .500 record at the holiday break with Tuesday night’s 112-91 loss to the Toronto Raptors at Kaseya Center, this time their lowest-scoring game of the season.

Looking nothing like the team that dominated on offense at the start of the season, Erik Spoelstra’s team instead this time fell to Sandro Mamukelashvili & Co.

“This is not what I would have predicted,” Spoelstra said. “I thought we were ready.”

Unlike the efforts in road losses to the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks over the weekend, when the Heat competed until the decisive stages, this had the look of a team beaten down by the recent losses, in desperate need of a break.

“I don’t even know right now,” Spoelstra said.

At 15-15, the Heat now get Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, before returning for a back-to-back set on Friday night in Atlanta and then Saturday night at home against the Indiana Pacers.

By then, it will become a matter of whether they can avoid having a losing record for the first time since they stood 1-3 after a Nov. 2 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Got to be better, man,” center Bam Adebayo said. “We just got to figure it out as a whole.”

The numbers were limited across the board for the Heat, save for a 21-point performance from Jaime Jaquez Jr.

Otherwise, 17 points from Norman Powell on 6-of-17 shooting, nine from Adebayo and this time only five points and nine rebounds from Kel’el Ware.

“It all starts individually,” Jaquez said. “We’ve all got to look at each other in the mirror.’

Scottie Barnes led the Raptors with 27 points, on a night Mamukelashvili also outscored much of the Heat roster.

“The defense wasn’t there,” Powell said. “The defense wasn’t good.”

Five Degrees of Heat from Tuesday night’s game:

1. Game flow: The Raptors led 21-16 after the first quarter and 51-44 at halftime.

The Heat then went down 16 in the third quarter.

Then, as was the previous two games, in the road losses in Boston and New York, the Heat swooned at the end of the third period, this time down 82-67 going into the fourth.

The Raptors extended their lead to 21 early in the fourth quarter, effectively ending it.

“We’re a young team, but we’ve got to focus on the details of the game,” Powell said. “That’s going to help us get out of this losing streak.”

It ended with the Heat at .402 from the field and 8 of 30 on 3-pointers, with 18 turnovers.

“We can’t afford games like this,” Spoelstra said of the lack of fight. “We haven’t had many like this.”

2. Nothing early: The Heat’s lowest-scoring first half of the season was a study in struggle.

The Heat were 4 of 18 on 3-pointers over the first two periods, with 10 turnovers at halftime.

No Heat player had more than three field goals in the first half, with Andrew Wiggins the lone starter with even that many.

For that matter, even the start was telling, with Toronto moving to an initial 16-3 lead.

“We got to do a better job of just executing,” Powell said.

Both of the Heat’s two lowest-scoring games of the season have come at Kaseya Center against the Raptors, the Heat’s only two games below 100 points this season.

“It was a lifeless start and then we felt like we were digging back the rest of the game,” Spoelstra said.

3. Adebayo off: The offensive struggles continued for Adebayo, this time with just three points in the first half on 1-of-5 shooting.

Adebayo also was just 1 of 3 from the foul line in the first half, compensating somewhat with his game-high eight first-half rebounds.

“I’ve got to fight through whatever I’ve got to fight through,” Adebayo said.

Adebayo closed 4 of 11 from the field, albeit with a game-high 12 rebounds.

“I have to be better for him,” Spoelstra said. “But his heart is in the right place. He wants to help the team.”

4. Three down: The Heat continued in the injury absences of Tyler Herro (toe), Pelle Larsson (ankle) and Nikola Jovic (elbow).

“I am very encouraged by the progress,” Spoelstra said pregame. “They’re not ready to go tonight, but we don’t have a timeline.

“I came in yesterday and I was encouraged.”

And then the Heat took the court, showing how much the scoring of Herro, the energy of Larsson and perhaps even the creativity of Jovic are needed.

5. Comeback tour: On the one-year anniversary of his Achilles tear, Dru Smith sparked the Heat off the bench with eight points on 3-of-4 shooting in his initial eight-minute stint.

Smith ruptured his left Achilles in a Dec. 23, 2024 victory over the Brooklyn Nets. He was on the verge of being converted to a standard contract at the time of his injury.

He finally got that contact this past offseason, re-emerging as a rotation mainstay.

Smith closed with 10 points, two rebounds and two assists.

“Now got to make it to January for the first time,” said Smith, whose past two seasons have ended with a pre-January injury, including tearing his ACL in November 2023.