The Miami Heat would come out on Saturday night and try to keep their home win streak alive. Facing the Toronto Raptors is always a tough and scrappy matchup for this Miami Heat team though.
Getting out to a rough start, the Toronto Rapids would get the better of the Miami Heat, controlling the game for the most part. They found themselves up by as much as 16 points or so in the game.
The Miami Heat would eventually climb back in the game by the time it was done, but to be quite honest, the real game didn’t start until the fourth quarter began anyway. That is when everything started to break down, allowing the Heat to make their own push to come back.
Taking a minute of reflection, you would be remiss if you didn’t mention Jimmy Butler‘s herculean efforts to get them through the game. He would finish with 37 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 dimes, another triple-double to add to his franchise-record in just several days.
Starting the fourth down 10, they were able to tie the game up by the end of regulation, leading to an initial overtime period. Fast-forwarding two more quarters, the Miami Heat would eventually go on to play a triple-overtime all-time type contest against the Toronto Raptors.
This one, literally, might have been the best game of the year or one of them, at least. Both teams absolutely wore out their rosters.
The Miami Heat came all the way back from down big to challenge Toronto. Taking them three overtimes deep, the Heat just couldn’t finish the deal.
Check out the minutes played per team.
5 guys with 50+ minutes played? Is that a lot?@MiamiHEAT | #HEATCulture pic.twitter.com/fANOphrIVL
— Bally Sports Sun: HEAT (@BallyHEAT) January 30, 2022
Though the Miami Heat came out on the wrong side of this one, you still have to love and respect the effort. Late-game execution and turnovers were still a problem, while you specifically note Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo in the area.
Herro is coming off of protocols but has been turning the ball over at a rather high rate since returning, while Bam still has the reason of getting back from hand surgery to lean on. However, those two reasons are starting to fade as the Miami Heat get more games under their belts with those guys back in the lineup.
You put this one in the books as a good effort and hope they can just get some rest now, as they travel to Boston on Monday for another tough contest. That’s before facing this same Raptors team again on Tuesday and again, on the second night of a back-to-back.
Mind you, that’s essentially after playing in a back-to-back-to-back, including the three overtime periods, in this one.