Raptors Takeaways: Team effort comes and goes in loss to Heat

With Scottie Barnes out for who knows how long with a sprained right ankle, the mission for the Toronto Raptors as they headed to Miami was to make up for their best player’s absence in increments. A little from one corner here, a little from another corner there. No one had to be a hero, but ideally, collectively they could respond to the challenge better than they did in November when Barnes missed 11 games beginning Oct. 30^th and the Raptors went 2-9.

“Any time you lose a player, there is a need for somebody else to step up and step up does not mean necessarily taking more shots, taking more on your shoulders,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. “It's just being even more locked in and doing small things. Is that getting over the screen, not getting hit? Is that communicating coverages? Is that boxing out more? There is a need for a whole team to step up.”

For about 15 minutes on the road against the Heat, Rajakovic’s words came to life. The Raptors were excellent, as a group. They got out to a quick early lead, and after the Heat came back to tie late in the first quarter, Toronto went on a 19-3 run to build themselves a promising 16-point lead barely three minutes into the second quarter by doing a long list of little things right and getting some good contributions from all corners.

But then it all stopped in what ended up being a 114-104 Heat win that gave the Raptors their fourth straight loss and dropped their record to 7-19 — tied with Washington for the second-most losses in the NBA, if you track those kinds of things — and 1-12 away from home, which is tied with the New Orleans Pelicans for the worst road record league-wide.

The Heat defended harder and with more purpose. The Raptors' cutting and passing game grew sluggish. The Heat took advantage of Raptors misses and scored in early offence, and they did most of it in the second and third quarters when the game was decided.

The Heat won for the second time in three starts against the Raptors, winning the season series, and improving to 13-10, good for fifth place in the East.

The Raptors are also now 2-10 without Barnes, their second-leading scorer, second-leading rebounding and best playmaker.

Toronto lost the plot in the second quarter as the Heat finished the half on a 33-10 run. They led by 20 with 8:10 to play and the Raptors couldn’t really mount a convincing late push.

The box score was hardly lopsided. The Heat shot the ball a little better (48.2 per cent from the floor to 44.6 per cent for Toronto, making 13 threes to the Raptors' 11), but Toronto held their own on the boards and actually won the turnover battle (11-15). But the Heat took 32 free throws to the Raptors 15, which was a problem.

The Raptors are off until Monday when they host the Chicago Bulls.

Some takeaways:

1. RJ Barrett’s defence needs to get better:

With Barnes out and Immanuel Quickley still not projected to return for at least a week or maybe more — it’s inevitable that Barrett will end up shouldering more of the offence. He was the Raptors' point guard for most of the night, much as he was with Barnes was out last month, and overall, he did pretty well, as reflected by his second career — and second this season — triple-double as he finished with 13 points (5-of-18 from the floor), 11 rebounds and 10 assists.

Yes, there were some tough shots in there, and yes there were six turnovers, but Barrett competed hard on the glass and continues to show some genuine play-making chops. His assist to Ochai Agbaji where he threaded the needle through two defenders early in the third quarter was eye candy.

But too often Barrett simply falls asleep defensively. When the Heat were making their big run in the second quarter, Barrett was right in the middle of it: losing Dru Smith in transition for a corner three, losing Tyler Herro in a screening action with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo leading to a three at the top of the circle, and over-helping on Butler leaving his man, Nikola Jovic, open for an open three above the break.

In the third quarter, he was isolated in the corner on Butler, turned his head when Kevin Love came to set a screen and let Butler drive baseline for a wide-open lay-up. It’s not often you lose sight of your man when he’s right in front of you, but in this case, that’s what happened.

It's whether Barrett can clean up some of these mental lapses that will likely determine how effective a player he can be and in what role on a winning team. The production and the efficiency and even the turnovers can be taken with a grain of salt when Barrett is taking so much defensive attention with Barnes out, but the defence needs addressing.

2. Gradey Dick needs to shoot better:

Overall the second-year wing has been a really nice story this season, increasing his usage and his production dramatically. And he showed in the early going how his offence is becoming increasingly diversified. He took a loose ball the length of the floor and dunked it in transition for his first basket and scored on a gorgeous finger-roll while taking a dribble handoff from Barrett shortly after.

He had 12 points in the first quarter. He drove closeouts and pulled up for mid-range jumpers. There’s a lot to like as he led the Raptors with 22 points on 8-of-19 shooting. But Dick was 3-of-11 from three and is now shooting 34.7 from deep on more than seven attempts per game.

In itself it’s not a horrible number — league average is 35.9 — but he’s shooting just 30.5 per cent in his last nine games and tends to mix in a lot of tough looks.

Again, this all gets easier when Barnes is punching the paint and dragging defences with him — the three that Barrett found him for in the corner late in the fourth quarter was a good example of the kind of shot diet that Dick would ideally be feasting on.

 But given that Dick’s got his own defensive lapses to deal with — giving up consecutive blow-bys to Tyler Herro and Jovic in the second quarter was a tough look — if it’s offence that is keeping him on the floor and his offence is based around his shooting, being a bit more selective might serve him well.

3. Kudos to Jakob Poeltl

The Raptors centre looked like he was going to be a late scratch when he had some back spasms in pre-game warm-up. Bruno Fernando started in his place at centre and the safe bet was that Poeltl was going to take the night off.

No one would have blinked an eye: when a seven-footer’s back acts up, you almost expect it, and caution makes sense. As backup centre Kelly Olynyk said when asked how he developed his own back woes that kept him out all of the exhibition season and the first quarter of the regular season: “Your guess is as good as mine. Practice? Got hit maybe a fall? But it's one of those things where it kind of just tightened up after practice one day and then never untightened.”

But five minutes into the first quarter Poeltl was loose enough to jog onto the floor, take his place in the rotation and play the whole game. Credit to the Raptors training staff who got him moving, but credit too to Poeltl who chose not to take the night off and tried to help his teammates.

The big Austrian wasn’t his best as he finished with 16 points and just four rebounds (well below his season average of 11.6) and was -18 for the game, but he gave all of himself when he easily could have chosen not to, and it’s appreciated.

4. Tyler Herro’s got game

The sixth-year guard was challenged coming out of last season by Heat president Pat Riley to get stronger and be better prepared for the rigours of an NBA season. The slightly built shooting guard has missed an average of 21 games per season over the last five years, including 40 last year for a variety of ailments. It’s never good when your legendary team president suggests you’re “fragile” and questions your nutrition.

Herro seems to have listened. He looks a little thicker than in years past and certainly has no shortage of energy. He’s not going to earn any all-defence votes, but he competes when teams try to take advantage of him on switches. That’s about all he has to do because offensively, he’s a demon.

He led the Heat with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting, and if you squinted a bit you might be able to convince yourself you were watching a Steph Curry sim, sacrilege I know. But Herro has plenty of bounce and skills to get himself into the paint and to the rim, and effortless range on his deep ball — like on his step back, cross-over combination that ended up with Ochai Agbaji nearly falling over, and Herro drilling the deep three when the Raptors wing fouled him trying to recover. The four-point play put the Heat up 10 in the third and sent them on their way. 

Herro is averaging 23.8 points a game shooting 41.4 per cent from three on 10 attempts a game, while pulling five rebounds and five assists, and looking good doing it too. He should get some all-star votes if the Heat keep inching up the standings in the East.

5. Butler enters rumour mill

I have no idea where the facts end and the fiction starts when it comes to the trade rumours regarding Heat star Jimmy Butler that made the internet explode this week. But I do know Bernie Lee, the Canadian agent who represents Butler — I wrote a feature about his own unlikely story back in 2018 when Butler ended up in Philadelphia after turning over the card table in Minnesota.

And what I knew then still stands: If Lee wants to make a point, he won’t dance around it, and it will usually be entertaining.

I say this in the context of Lee calling out ESPN insider Shams Charania for spilling tea on Butler’s desire — according to Charania — to be traded and to where. The entire thread on X was entertaining, but this one was my favourite:

Charania stands by his reporting, naturally. Anyway, we’ll see how it all unfolds but count me amused.