Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 106-92 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena to open a quick two-game trip. The Heat is right back at it with another big game on Wednesday against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m., Bally Sports Sun) to close the trip:
With Jimmy Butler unavailable because of neck soreness, the Heat somehow lost to a team that shot just 22.2 percent on threes.
The Raptors shot 8 of 36 from three-point range and was outscored 30-24 from beyond the arc but still won by double digits. That doesn’t happen often in today’s NBA.
Toronto managed to overcome its three-point shooting struggles by dominating the possession game and the paint.
The Raptors outscored the Heat 62-36 from inside the paint and closed with a big 93-80 edge in field-goal attempts behind 15 offensive rebounds and seven fewer turnovers than Miami.
This was the theme of the game from the start, as the Raptors entered halftime with a 53-47 lead despite shooting just 1 of 16 (6.3 percent) from beyond the arc. Toronto did this by totaling 36 paint points on 18-of-29 shooting from inside the paint and taking 10 more field-goal attempts than Miami in the first two quarters.
The Raptors’ lead grew to as many as 19 points in the second half.
The Heat made a late run to cut the deficit to 10 points with 3:25 to play and had possession of the ball to move even closer to the Raptors. But the Heat missed four shots on a possession that included three offensive rebounds to waste that opportunity.
The Raptors build on their lead from there on the way to the win.
As for Butler, Tuesday marked the first game that Butler has missed since sitting out a Jan. 24 win over the Boston Celtics because of lower back tightness. He played in 26 straight games during that span after missing 14 of the first 37 games of the season.
The Heat fell to 8-8 record in games without Butler this season.
With the Heat playing again on Wednesday against the Knicks, the hope is that he’ll feel healthy enough to play in New York.
The Heat was also without Jamal Cain (G League), Nikola Jovic (back spasms) and Orlando Robinson (G League) against the Raptors.
Besides a big scoring night from Tyler Herro, the Heat struggled to generate efficient offense without Butler against the Raptors’ length.
Herro was impressive in the loss, finishing with a game-high 33 points on 13-of-21 shooting from the field and 6-of-10 shooting on threes. He also dished out six assists.
But the rest of the Heat’s roster combined for just 59 points on 19-of-59 (32.3 percent) shooting from the field and 4-of-23 (17.4 percent) shooting on threes. That includes Heat All-Star center Bam Adebayo, who scored 21 points on 7-of-18 shooting from the field and grabbed 12 rebounds.
As a team, the Heat shot just 40 percent from the field and 10 of 33 (30.3 percent) from three-point range and committed 16 turnovers.
Butler’s absence created a rare opportunity for Victor Oladipo to play as a Heat starter.
Oladipo, who recently fell out of the Heat’s rotation after Kyle Lowry’s return from injury, started Tuesday in Butler’s place. It marked Oladipo’s second start of the season, with 37 of his 39 appearances coming off the bench.
Oladipo was relatively quiet with seven points, two rebounds and two assists while shooting 2 of 7 from the field.
This start comes after Oladipo received four DNP-CDs (did not play, coach’s decision) in the previous five games despite being healthy and in uniform. Those were Oladipo’s first four DNP-CDs of the season after spending most of the schedule as a fixture in the Heat’s bench attack, as healthier roster has forced coach Erik Spoelstra to make tough rotation decisions.
Oladipo opened Tuesday’s game alongside the rest of the usual starting lineup — Gabe Vincent, Tyler Herro, Kevin Love and Bam Adebayo — to make up the Heat’s 23rd different starting group of the season. The lineup had not played a single second together this season prior to starting in Toronto.
But this new-look lineup actually helped the Heat start Tuesday’s game strong, opening the night on a 14-10 run before Miami made its substitution of the contest.
It didn’t go as well to begin the second half, as the Heat’s starters were outscored 18-11 before the first substitution was made.
While Oladipo moved into the starting lineup, center Cody Zeller was back in the Heat’s bench rotation.
Zeller returned to his role as the Heat’s backup center after missing the previous six games because of a broken nose.
Zeller was solid in his first game action since breaking his nose on March 11, closing Tuesday’s loss with six points and seven rebounds in 11 minutes while wearing a mask to protect his healing face.
With Zeller back, forward Haywood Highsmith and center Omer Yurtseven did not play against the Raptors after teaming up to fill in for Zeller while he was out for the last two weeks.
Instead, the Heat’s new normal bench rotation of Zeller, Max Strus, Caleb Martin and Lowry was back intact on Tuesday.
In his third game back in Toronto since joining the Heat, Lowry finished with six points while shooting 1 of 6 from the field and 0 of 4 on threes.
The Heat continues to face the very real possibility of having to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament.
With Tuesday’s loss, the Heat remains in seventh place in the Eastern Conference.
The No. 7 Heat (40-36) is now one-half game behind the No. 6 Nets (40-35) and three games behind the No. 5 Knicks (43-33).
The Nets also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Heat after sweeping the regular-season series with the Heat 3-0.
But the head-to-head tiebreaker between the Heat and Knicks will likely be decided in the teams’ final matchup of the season on Wednesday. A Heat win in that game would tie the season series at 2-2 and the next tiebreaker goes to the division winner that Miami is on track to become and New York is not. A Knicks win would clinch the season series and the tiebreaker over the Heat.
The problem is that tiebreaker may not be a factor, as the Heat stands three games behind the Knicks in the loss column with less than two weeks left in the regular season.
To escape having to qualify for the playoffs through the play-in tournament, the Heat needs to finish as a top-six playoff seed in the East. The seventh through 10th-place teams in each conference participate in the play-in tournament.
The Heat has six games remaining on its regular-season schedule.
