Scottie Barnes scored 25 points, Brandon Ingram finished with 23 and the Toronto Raptors beat Miami 121-95. The outcome locked the Heat into the play-in…<\/p>\n
TORONTO(AP) \u2014 Scottie Barnes scored 25 points, Brandon Ingram finished with 23 and the Toronto Raptors beat Miami 121-95 on Tuesday night, an outcome that locked the Heat into the play-in tournament for a fourth consecutive season.<\/p>\n
Jakob Poeltl scored 17 points for the Raptors (44-35), who moved within a game of idle Atlanta for the No. 5 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff chase. Toronto is aiming for its first playoff trip since 2022 and leads Philadelphia (43-36) by one game in the race for the sixth and final guaranteed berth in the East.<\/p>\n
RJ Barrett scored 16 and Jamal Shead had 11 assists off the bench for Toronto.<\/p>\n
A 19-2 run by the Raptors in the first half turned a two-point deficit into a 13-point lead, and Toronto maintained the double-digit margin virtually the entire rest of the way.<\/p>\n
Andrew Wiggins scored 24 points for Miami (41-38), which now likely needs to win its final three games to have any realistic chance of escaping the No. 10 seed going into the play-in tournament for a second consecutive year.<\/p>\n
Tyler Herro and Norman Powell each scored 14 for the Heat. Bam Adebayo \u2014 who had an 83-point game for Miami last month against Washington \u2014 was held to seven points on 2-for-14 shooting, and the Heat lost for the ninth time in their last 12 games.<\/p>\n
Toronto improved to 3-0 against the Heat this season. The Raptors have swept Miami in a season series only twice before \u2014 going 4-0 against the Heat in 2007-08 and 2018-19 \u2014 and will aim to do so again on Thursday when the teams finish a two-game series in Toronto.<\/p>\n
The Raptors improved to 13-4 against Southeast Division teams this season.<\/p>\n
\nUp next <\/p>\n
The teams play again Thursday in Toronto.<\/p>\n