Temperature rising
Heat continue to roll, win their 4th straight behind Butler, Adebayo
Even as the winning continued, this was something closer to whole for the Miami Heat, something closer to what the Heat looked like during last season’s run to the Eastern Conference finals.
With Goran Dragic back in the mix for Erik Spoelstra’s team, with Andre Iguodala doing the 3-point things that Jae Crowder did during last season’s playoff run, the Heat offered another reminder of their possibilities Wednesday night, with a 116-108 victory over the Toronto Raptors at AmericanAirlines Arena.
“We just have to keep on grinding and working,” Spoelstra said. “We feel like we’ve make some progress in terms of building some better winning habits.”
So make it four consecutive victories and wins in eight of the past 11, as the Heat again rode the contributions of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo.
With the victory, Spoelstra tied Red Holzman for fifth place on the NBA’s all-time regular-season coaching win list, at 667.
Butler, mixing in three 3-pointers in his performance, closed with 27 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds, with Adebayo finishing with 19 points and 12 rebounds.
“We’re getting a flow,” Adebayo said. “We’re getting that locker-room brother feel again.”
For the Heat, there also were 15 points from Dragic in his first game in three weeks and four 3-pointers from Iguodala.
“Hopefully keep playing like this, keep winning like this,” Butler said, “because in the end, winning is all that matters.”
Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet each scored 24 for the Raptors, who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back set.
The Raptors exited somewhat dazed.
“I thought we outplayed ‘em,” Toronto coach Nick Nurse said. “I thought we outplayed ‘em in almost all facets. The ball just bounced their way a lot.”
Five Degrees of Heat from Wednesday’s game:
1. Closing time: The Heat led by 15 late in the second quarter, were up, 66-56, at halftime and held an 11-point lead in the third quarter before going into the fourth up, 92-85.
From there, Toronto closed within, 100-98, with 5:24 left on a Norman Powell 3-pointer.
A 3-pointer by Butler followed, as did a steal and transition layup by Butler, for a 105-98 Heat lead with 4:36 to play.
“You need great players to make great plays down the stretch and that’s what Jimmy did,” Spoelstra said.
The Heat then would go up 11 from there.
It was the second time in Butler’s Heat tenure he converted three 3-pointers.
“We just need to stay focused and keep grinding,” Dragic said. “Right now, we finally feel like we’ve jelled.”
2. Says who?: Adebayo and Butler both made statements a night after failing to earn All-Star selection, after doing so a year ago.
“We here to do a job. The bottom line,” Adebayo said of moving past the All-Star snubs. “So that’s kind of how we look at it. The end of the day, we keep pushing forward.”
For Butler it was another case of filling the box score, along the way securing the 2,200th defensive rebound of his career.
“Jimmy’s game was the quintessential all-around winning basketball game,” Spoelstra said. “Can’t believe he couldn’t have gotten two more rebounds to seal it [the triple-double]. That would have been really fitting.”
For Adebayo, it was a night when he moved him past Michael Beasley into 19th place on the Heat’s all-time scoring list, with his fifth defensive rebound moving him past Eddie Jones for 11th on the Heat’s all-time list.
He said he was undecided about whether he would defending his Skills Challenge on All-Star Sunday now that he is not an All-Star.
“I feel like Heat Nation wants me to be 2-0. But it’s up in the air,” he said of the March 7 event in Atlanta. “I got time.”
Of not making the All-Star Game, Butler said, “I’m cool. I wish Bam would have made it.”
3. Dragic back: Dragic made his return from a nine-game absence with a sprained left ankle when he entered with 5:35 left in the opening period, playing as the Heat’s sixth man.
He then scored in transition on his first shot, his first points since Feb. 5 against the Washington Wizards.
Dragic was up to 13 points at halftime, closing 4 of 13 from the field.
“I felt I was going to be more tired,” Dragic said, “but I was not. My wind was fine.”
4. Swing time: There was an interesting swing with 1:18 to play in the first half, when blocking foul on the Heat’s Kelly Olynyk was challenged by Spoelstra, with the ruling changed to the fourth foul on the Raptors’ Pascal Siakam. Siakam was not a factor after that stage.
“That was going to be [Olynyk’s] third foul and that also was a swing play with Siakam,” Spoelstra said.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse earlier in the second period lost a challenge on a foul called on Lowry that sent Butler to the line.
That meant both teams were out of challenges before halftime, although Spoelstra did save his timeout with the successful challenge,
“I don’t typically like to,” Spoelstra said of burning his timeout in the first half, “but by whatever means necessary at this point.”
5. Tiebreaker: With the Eastern Conference so tightly bunched, Wednesday night could come into play as a playoff tiebreaker, with the Heat now winning the completed season series 2-1.
The teams previously split a pair of Raptors home games in Tampa, where Toronto is playing this season due to Canadian pandemic border restrictions. Nurse said he knew it was only a matter of time until the Heat turned back into something closer to what they were at the end of last season.
“The majority open the newspaper or click online and look at the record and say, ‘Man, what’s wrong with them?’ “Nurse said. “But you know the players are there, the coaches are there, a winning organization.”