Raptors’ road trip ends with defeat in Miami

MIAMI — Dion Waiters scored 20 points, Tyler Johnson added 16 and the Miami Heat beat the Toronto Raptors 104-89 on Saturday, improving to 21-4 over their past 25 games.

Goran Dragic scored 15 and Hassan Whiteside added 12 points and 14 rebounds for Miami.

Dragic played only 41 seconds in the second half, leaving after taking an elbow from Toronto’s Cory Joseph. Dragic eventually returned to the bench with an icepack over his right eye, which appeared to be swollen nearly shut.

Toronto finished 2-3 on its five-game road trip.

DeMar DeRozan scored 17 points for the Raptors, who have lost 15 of their past 24 games. Toronto, still without injured All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry, managed only seven assists, an NBA low for any team this season, on 32 field goals.

DeRozan was 5 for 10 from the field in the first quarter, and 0 for 6 the rest of the way.

Norman Powell scored 14 and Delon Wright, the brother of former Heat player Dorell Wright, scored a season-high 13 for the Raptors.

The Heat (32-34) moved past idle Chicago (31-34) for No. 9 in the Eastern Conference, remaining a game behind No. 7 Detroit (33-33) and a half-game back of No. 8 Milwaukee (32-33).

“We’ve made up a lot of ground,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Things will take care of itself if we handle our business.”

Miami made 11 threepointers. It has won 17 consecutive games when making at least 10 from beyond the arc.

“You better respect them because they’re here to stay,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.

“They have pride. They’re playing with a tremendous amount of confidence.”

The Raptors trailed by as many as 25 and lost Patrick Patterson with 9:55 left, after he was ejected following Toronto’s fifth technical of the night.

A 12-0 run in the fourth got Toronto within 11, but the Raptors never got the Heat lead down to single digits in the second half.