MIAMI – Heading into the season, the Toronto Raptors were brimming with confidence, in part because they believed they had an identity, and – more importantly – they believed in that identity.
They were going to be defence-first, playing a hounding, aggressive style coming at opponents in waves. They built a team around it, doubled down on it in the off-season and believe it was their ability to cause havoc for other teams that helped them finish 2021-22 on a 55-win pace in the second half of the year.
Let’s just say the only waves in the Miami area for most of Saturday night’s meeting between the Miami Heat and the Raptors were lapping on the sands of nearby South Beach.
For the first 30 minutes of Toronto’s two-game set against the Heat in Miami – the second game is set for Monday as the NBA has introduced some baseball-type series to cut down on travel miles and associated wear and tear – the Raptors looked like they were in a hurry to enjoy a night on the town and a subsequent off-day in the sun in one of the league’s glamour cities. They caused no havoc.
And it cost them what ended up a 112-109 loss that was closer than the full 48-minute record would suggest.
The Raptors fell to 1-2 on the season while the Heat – who were also playing on the second night of a back-to-back, albeit they were at home Friday night – improved to 1-2.
It was costly too, because the Raptors lost Scottie Barnes for the night early in the second quarter after he sprained his right ankle – the same one that he sprained just before training camp that kept him out for three weeks – when came down funny after completing a soaring lay-up for his 11th point in just 13 minutes.
It took a while, but the Raptors eventually did show some ‘fight.’
Midway through the second quarter Raptors rookie Christian Koloko got fouled hard by Heat forward Caleb Martin and expressed his displeasure, mainly by standing up chest-to-chest with Martin.
Martin pushed forward aggressively, Koloke swiped him out of his space and Martin responded by tacking the Raptors centre into the first row on the baseline.
A fairly large amount of milling about followed as players and staff from both teams ended up in a scrum of sorts. Koloko ended up being ejected – unfairly it seemed – as did Martin, for obvious reasons.
Toronto was trailing by 22 with 7:35 to play in the third quarter when the dust settled. They rode the surge of adrenaline to a 17-2 run to cut Miami’s lead to seven, with Miami eventually taking a 92-83 lead into the fourth.
The Raptors couldn’t close the gap from there, though they kept trying. A pair of jumpers by Gary Trent Jr. kept the Heat lead at with five minutes to play, and a put-back by Pascal Siakam cut it to six with 64 seconds left.
Fittingly it was a lay-up by Kyle Lowry that seemingly iced the game with 41 seconds and completed a strong out by the former Raptor star against his old club as he finished with 17 points and six assists. The Raptors did cut the lead to three as Precious Achiuwa made a pair of free throws and O.G. Anunoby hit a three, but a Jimmy Butler free throw put the lead back to four before the clock eventually ran out on the visitors.
The Raptors were led by Siakam, who had 23 points, nine assists and eight rebounds, flirting with his second triple-double in as many nights. Trent Jr. had 23 points and shot 5-of-12 from deep, while Precious Achiuwa had 18 points and 11 rebounds off the bench in his best game of the season.
Toronto shot 42.5 per cent from the floor while making 14 threes, while the Heat shot 49.5 per cent and made 11 triples. The biggest difference was at the free throw line as Miami shot 25-of-27 from the stripe and Toronto was 21-of-28.
That they reeled the Heat back to that extent was an indictment of their effort to that point. After the Raptors’ early no-show, the rest of the game was played in a familiar style between the two clubs that each pride themselves on hard-nosed play, but spotting the Heat a 22-point lead and first-half holiday was never going to work.
Lowry made a point of having an impact in just his second game against his former team since leaving as a free agent in the summer of 2021. He missed an early lay-up and had a careless turnover in the early going, and then had to leave the game briefly after getting his chin split open.
But he nailed a pair of weakside threes and had a nice assist on a fastbreak as the Heat pushed their first-quarter lead to 11 before the Raptors reeled them in a little bit. The Raptors closed the period with two triples from Trent Jr. and one by Achiuwa as Miami led 38-33 to start the second quarter, which made sense given they were shooting 63 per cent from the floor and 6-of-9 from deep.
But defence was an issue early and often for Toronto. Concerns about who’s going to score besides Siakam and what of the bench production – the Raptors bench was better with 32 points, but they were outscored for the third time in three games this season — won’t matter much if the Raptors can’t execute their stated first principle: playing a high-pressure defensive game that forces opponents into second, third and fourth passes and yields more than their share of turnovers.
None of that was evident in the first half, at least apart from a few spurts. Max Strus and Duncan Robinson have one job on an NBA team – make open threes – and the Raptors gave them up too regularly. They were a combined 4-of-8 from deep, not many of them contested.
Old pal Lowry was a perfect 3-of-3 – the Raptors should know he can shoot and where his spots are, but the only time he shot a triple that was contested, Siakam fouled him in the act of shooting for a four-point play.
And when the Raptors were paying attention? That didn’t go well either as Lowry went to set a screen for Jimmy Butler on the wing, dragged two defenders with him as he faked the screen and kept running to the corner leaving Butler a wide-open lane for a straight-line dunk.
The Raptors’ frustration began to show too, as VanVleet – in an exceptionally rare instance of him making an objectively bad basketball decision – picked up his fourth foul with a minute to play in the half shoving Butler 90 feet from the Raptors basket after VanVleet missed a lay-up against Butler a moment before.
The Heat led 71-50 at the half, which was the only story that really mattered.
Sure the Raptors got a boost after the Koloko-Martin skirmish, but it was a hole too deep.
The best they can hope is that a night on the town and a day in the sun won’t soften the edge they finished the game with when the two teams meet on Monday.
They’ll need it as they try to avoid an early season three-game losing streak.
