Raptors crush Heat, now fifth in NBA’s Eastern Conference

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The Toronto Raptors expected to be in a tough battle at home on Thursday night against an opponent with wounded pride, but instead mostly dominated the Miami Heat. Again.

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Two days after a blowout home win, Toronto completed a four-game sweep over the Heat, winning 128-114 thanks to a brilliant game from Brandon Ingram, who scored 38 points, his season high. A strong night from RJ Barrett (22, along with six rebounds) and more good work from youngsters Collin Murray-Boyles (17, along with eight rebounds) and Ja’Kobe Walter (now shooting 47% on three-pointers in his last 25 games) added up to a comfortable win, despite Miami shooting about 55% from the field.

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Toronto only committed one turnover in the first half and four in all, one off the franchise low for a game.

Bam Adebayo was a load for the Heat, but didn’t have enough help, particularly on defence.

With Philadelphia losing in Houston — and without star Joel Embiid, who had an appendectomy on Thursday — it ended up being quite a fine night for Toronto, now two games ahead of the Sixers. Toronto also temporarily moved into fifth place in the East.

Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic loved what he saw from Ingram.

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“We need BI to be aggressive. We need him to be forceful. He did a good job not just scoring. He grabbed seven rebounds, seven assists today. He led our team in assists tonight. So it was great performance and now he’s in trouble. Now we know what he can do, so we’re going to expect it,” Rajakovic said with a laugh after joining Dwane Casey, Nick Nurse, Sam Mitchell and Lenny Wilkens as the only Raptors coaches with 100 career wins with the franchise.

More takeaways from one of the better Raptors nights of the year:

A NEW MARK

Ingram set a new franchise high for most points by a player in his first year as a Raptor. Ingram first moved past Kawhi Leonard, then ahead of Mike James. Both Leonard and James only played one year with the club. We can’t see that being the case with Ingram.

What was really working for him Thursday?

“How aggressive he is and his ability to get to the rim,” Rajakovic said. “I think that’s a game-changer. When he’s really aggressive, getting to the rim and getting foul calls and, you know, knocking down those shots, he just opens up a bit.”

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Ingram credited his teammates for spacing the floor well, limiting mistakes and added the rim was looking pretty wide for him. 

Original Raptors Damon Stoudamire and Tracy Murray were surpassed by Ingram earlier in the season, along with Barnes, Lou Williams, Walt Williams, John Wallace and Donyell Marshall.

Leonard’s 26.6 points per game easily lead all Raptors in their first season with the club, but he only played in 60 games. Ingram moved his average up to nearly 22 points per game with his strong performance.

HEAT HUMBLED

It wasn’t a surprise to see Miami come out with a purpose, scoring the first seven points of the game. Head coach Erik Spoelstra had said pre-game that the Heat’s 121-95 loss at Toronto Tuesday had left a sour taste in their mouths.

Spoelstra called the loss “humbling” and though he wouldn’t confirm rumours of a team meeting post-game — “we’ll keep that in house” — he did say Miami put in hard work since then.

“Some people probably think it’s over the top, but we were embarrassed the other night,” Spoelstra said.

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What was a surprise was how Toronto took complete control, building a lead of as many as 26 points over the ensuing two quarters before Miami staged a bit of a rally, hitting eight of 10 three-point shots to start the third quarter.

Toronto won the first three meetings between the teams and had held Miami to a season low against any opponent of 94 points per game over the first three.

“They had our number, three straight games,” he said.

Spoelstra had noted one of the main reasons for Toronto’s success had been preventing Miami from something it does well, scoring in the open court, noting Miami’s three lowest-scoring transition games had all been against the Raptors.

“They do a great job of swarming our drives. Do a great job of getting back,” he said.

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COMBO FINDS ITS WAY

Sandro Mamukelashvili had said after practice Wednesday he’s enjoying spendings some time alongside Jakob Poeltl (they’ve done well in 122 minutes on the court together over 22 games, a small sample size). Mamukelashvili has spent most of his minutes at centre this season (92% according to basketball-reference.com), but in San Antonio he spent plenty of time at power forward and said he enjoys operating that way with Poeltl doing things, like protecting the rim, required of a centre.

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Mamukelashvili had played 466 minutes over 50 games this year alongside Murray-Boyles and while that combination had not worked before, particularly defensively, it worked like a charm on this night and against this opponent. Both were plus-20 in the first half with Murray-Boyles absolutely dominating. Mamukelashvili was only 1-for-5 from the floor, but Toronto still did well when he was on the floor. It’s hard to say who played centre during those minutes as Mamukelashvili manned the spot defensively (including guarding Bam Adebayo), but Murray-Boyles filled the role on offence.

If the Raptors have found something there, it gives them another option moving forward on nights where Poeltl is struggling or there is a bad matchup or if Barnes is needed more on the wing.

LOTS OF LOCAL CONNECTIONS

Miami has a lot of local connections. Norman Powell was drafted and originally developed by the Raptors, eventually winning a championship with the franchise before getting even better elsewhere. Davion Mitchell played parts of one season in Toronto, helping mentor Jamal Shead and Ja’Kobe Walter along the way, while Andrew Wiggins hails from nearby Vaughan.

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It’s been an odd season for Powell, who earned his first all-star selection. He’s been coming off the bench about half the time lately, including on Thursday.

It’s an interesting decision by Spoelstra, who already has sixth man of the year front-runner Jaime Jacquez Jr. in reserve, along with intriguing young big man Kel’el Ware. The play of second-year wing Pelle Larsson while Powell was injured after the all-star break helped sway the decision.

It will be interesting to see what the future for Powell holds. He will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and Miami, in the play-in tournament each of the last four seasons, will be looking to make some changes.

X: @WolstatSun

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