The Toronto Raptors aim to tighten their hold on a playoff spot Thursday night when they go for a sweep of the season series against the visiting Miami Heat.
Toronto earned a 121-95 home victory Tuesday in the first of back-to-back games with the Heat.
That left the Raptors (44-35) in the sixth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, while the Heat (41-38) are locked into the play-in round.
The Raptors lead the season series with the Heat 3-0.
“This is the time of the year where we can show who we really are,” said RJ Barrett, who had 16 points and eight rebounds. “It was a quality win, but like (Toronto guard Immanuel Quickley) said, we’re looking at this like a playoff series. Winning Game 1 has nothing to do with Game 2. They’re going to come out more energized and play even harder. So, we have to be ready.”
The Heat can finish no higher than seventh.
“We were disappointed for sure that we weren’t able to bring another level of competitive spirit to this,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “That’s what’s disappointing. We’re not thinking about the next step right now.”
Miami has been held under 100 points six times this season, three of them against the Raptors.
“We have a spirit,” Spoelstra said. “Our guys bounce back, but we have to rise to the level of the competition. That’s the bottom line right now. We have these opportunities to meet our competition, and we come up short.”
“We didn’t play with enough effort, and that was the bottom line,” said Heat center Bam Adebayo, who was held to seven points and nine rebounds. “The best thing about it is we got a chance to still punch our ticket somehow.”
The Raptors had a 70-34 advantage in points in the paint and a 23-6 edge in second-chance points.
“They did a great job keeping us out of the paint,” Spoelstra said. “We had good looks from three, but you’ve got to knock down some of those to keep them honest. Otherwise, they’re going to keep on swarming the paint. They did a tremendous job of that.”
Andrew Wiggins topped Miami with 24 points.
Scottie Barnes recorded 25 points for Toronto, and Brandon Ingram scored 23.
“We really focused on what our (defensive) keys were,” said Barnes, who also had eight rebounds, one steal and one blocked shot. “We wanted to just help each other guard the ball, and we did a great job of that and building out from there.”
Quickley played 17:35 and had three points, four assists, four rebounds and two steals for Toronto after being out eight games with plantar fasciitis in his right foot.
“Super, super important minutes that he gave us tonight,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “I think him playing also took a little bit of the load off Scottie.”
Toronto reserve Jamal Shead recorded a game-high 11 assists in 23-plus minutes.
“I thought for the majority of the game we played with intensity that you need to play those types of games,” Rajakovic said. “We still had empty minutes. We still had some breakdowns on the defensive end that we need to clean up and continue getting better. But, overall, the intensity and urgency were there.”
