10 things: Raptors' rally falls short after losing Barnes and Koloko

Here are 10 takeaways from the Toronto Raptors' 112-109 loss to the Miami Heat.

One -- The Toronto Raptors dug themselves too deep of a hole on the second night of a back-to-back. Sure, the Heat had stretches of impressive play, but it was the usual smoke and mirrors of zone coverages and swarming perimeter defence that the Raptors have seen many times. Miami has yet to resemble the eastern conference finalist form they showed last season, but they're experienced enough to not squander a 24-point lead in the third quarter.

Two -- The Raptors were abysmal on defence to start, allowing 71 points to the Heat in the first half. Miami played smart by leveraging Bam Adebayo's size to pull extra defenders inside, before moving the ball unselfishly to open shooters to beat Toronto's rotations, but again, this is what the Heat do every single time. At first, the Raptors were able to go shot-for-shot, but eventually they hit their typical lull on offence, and it led to a string of sloppy possessions in transition where the Heat were able to push the lead into the twenties. There were also uncharacteristic mistakes made by the Raptors' main players across the board. Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet both fouled Kyle Lowry on threes, O.G. Anunoby bailed out Jimmy Butler twice with one second left on the shot clock with unnecessary reaches, and Gary Trent Jr. kept gambling instead of just keeping his man in front.

Three -- The second quarter collapse coincided with Scottie Barnes' ankle injury. Barnes was one of the Raptors' bright spots early on, playing in front of family and friends near his hometown, but was forced to leave twice with injuries. First, a knock on the shoulder left with him with a contusion that he quickly returned from, but after an impressive drive to the hoop where he shed two defenders, Barnes landed awkwardly as he was undercut by Tyler Herro's strange charge attempt where he jumped with his hands down on the play. Barnes had to be helped to the bench and did shoot a free throw after the timeout, but Toronto wisely took the foul and got their star sophomore out to conduct further evaluations. It's the same right ankle that he injured prior to training camp.

Four -- The Raptors became further short-handed after Christian Koloko's ejection. Koloko replaced Barnes in the starting lineup for the second half, but found himself entangled with Caleb Martin on a simple boxout. Martin wrapped his arm around Koloko to pin down the bigger player, which led to Koloko losing his balance as he jumped, and Koloko's flailing arm caught Martin's shoulder as he fell. Martin took this the wrong way, balled his fists and stood over the rookie while barking at him, Koloko responded by getting up and shoving Martin out of his face, which was met with a tackle into the empty row of courtside seats before they were mobbed and separated. A lengthy review came to the obvious conclusion of the ejection of both players, although it was surprising that Martin didn't receive an additional flagrant foul for escalating the incident into the stands.

Five -- The fight sparked the Raptors, launching a 17-4 run which cut their deficit to single-digits. It's hard to link a direct correlation between Koloko's ejection and an improvement in play, but there was more energy and focus from the Raptors in the second half. Most of it came on the offensive end, as the Raptors consistently created good looks off drive-and-kick opportunities. Miami collapsed the paint on every time Siakam or VanVleet stepped inside the arc, and they made the right plays to find open shooters. Taking better shots helped Toronto get set more often in transition defence, but they were also just showing more effort in general to get back. Miami managed to keep them at bay, but most of their stops were instances where the Raptors missed open chances.

Six -- Siakam didn't even play all that well and still came close to a triple-double. Miami smartly forced the ball out of Siakam's hands following his 37-point outburst against the Nets, and did so in ways that made him think. In addition to a pesky defender swiping at his dribble, the Heat also doubled from different spots on the court to keep Siakam guessing. He was also in foul trouble for much of the first half, which limited his aggressiveness in going to the basket for fear of Miami's guards sliding in for charges. Siakam was still able to generate quality offence, however, as he and VanVleet combined for 19 assists.

Seven -- Precious Achiuwa put together his first solid outing of the season. There is always extra motivation in going up against his former team that gave up on him after just one season, but Achiuwa was disciplined enough to resist the urge to showcase more than what he could actually do well. Achiuwa was active on defence, strong, strong in transition, and made smart reads on offence to finish with 14 points. He was at his best in the second half, where he knocked down a corner three and made two shots in short clock scenarios driving into the teeth of the defence for short jumpers under control. Achiuwa is too talented and too important to the Raptors to play as badly as he did in the first two games.

Eight -- VanVleet somehow managed to play 20 minutes in the second half with five fouls. His fourth foul was tacky but regrettable, as he was pressuring Jimmy Butler 90 feet from the basket, but it wasn't as egregious as the fifth foul where VanVleet was vertical on his closeout while Lowry kicked his legs forward. Even when Nick Nurse called for a review, the officials still upheld the call which put the team in a bind as they needed VanVleet to spark any hope of a comeback. To his credit, the savvy veteran was able to finish the game while also being as pesky as ever on defence.

Nine -- Anunoby continues to produce poor results when asked to create his own shot. Through three games, Anunoby is averaging 7.7 drives per game and while he is passing out of half of those drives, he is only shooting 18 per cent when he tries to finish. Surely he won't remain as shaky all year, but he also shot just 35 per cent on similar volume last season. The tape from this game isn't pretty, as he was blocked twice by a weak defender in Max Strus, and shanked a layup hard off the glass on a clumsy spin move around Herro. Anunoby has enough strength to barrel his way to the edge of the paint, but there is both a lack of explosion and a predictable nature to how he attacks that limits his effectiveness. He is much more efficient and effective when he plays within his usual role of catching and shooting for threes or leaking out in transition. VanVleet has given up much of his own offence this season to get other players shots, but Anunoby needs to deliver results with those additional chances.

Ten -- It will be fascinating to see how both teams adjust for the rematch. The Raptors did not call practice on Sunday given that it was a back-to-back, but both coach staffs will be pouring over the tapes to find small adjustments for Monday. For the Raptors, the biggest adjustment will simply be to get back in transition, and to perhaps show fewer double teams at Butler when he is mostly looking to pass. Nurse also subtly angled for suspensions in his post-game presser, saying that he "imagines there will be a lot more coming out of that" since players on Miami's bench had walked over towards the fracas.