Miami's offense falls apart in loss to Toronto

The Miami Heat split their back to back against the Toronto Raptors as they lose 98-90 at the FTX Arena. This now makes it three losses in their first four games at home to start the season for the Heat and not the kind of trend anyone was hoping for. The offense just couldn't get going at any point in this one as they shot just 34.9% from the field and 8-for-32 from deep. Not a recipe for success.

Miami came into this one without starting PF Caleb Martin, who was serving a one game suspension for his tackle of Christian Koloko. However, Toronto was missing last years rookie of the year Scottie Barnes, so we had an advantage there. Well, it didn't look like it. Toronto just manufactured another 6'9'' athlete with long arms from their factory and put him on the court. Just incredible the kind of system they have their in Toronto and it can get extremely exhausting to play against as evidenced in this game as the Heat just couldn't make any of their long distance shots.

Paskal Siakam and Fred VanVleet continue to be the consistent presence in the half court the Raptors need with all the young talent on their team. They didn't shoot efficiently, but they made all the tough buckets when Toronto needed them while also being the playmakers for the offense. Siakam had an all-around performance with 23 points, nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks and two steals while VanVleet had his usual 24 points and nine assists to just two turnovers. Just to get all my points on Toronto out of the way early I also need to speak about the impressive performance from Precious Achiuwa. Showing exactly what the Heat are missing after trading him for Kyle Lowry and it's a lot. He had 22 rebounds in this game. 22! He gets to the right moments, hustles non-stop and has a great motor. Created so many second opportunities for his team, while shutting down offensive possession for the Heat after just one shot nearly every time.

Now from what I saw from our Miami Heat. Our offense needs someone outside of Tyler Herro and Jimmy Butler to play at a consistent level. There have been flashes from players like Lowry, Max Strus, Gabe Vincent and Bam Adebayo, but no one has been able to consistently give the Heat the kind of offense they were hoping for coming into this season. Jimmy did his usual work as he finished the night with an efficient 26 points to go with eight rebounds and four assists. However, Tyler had one of the most impressive stats of the night as he had a career-high 15 rebounds. He also added 22 points on 8-of-18 shooting, four assists and a steal. Obviously the absence of Victor Oladipo from the bench unit makes our offense worse, but it can't be the missing piece to what has been one of the worst offenses in the league four games into the season. Far too often a play would take too long to run and it would lead to a rushed shot, which led to long rebounds that the Raptors would then use to rack up 27 fastbreak points, a real telling stat of how this game went. We need to figure out how to get the best looks in the offense quickly, because things aren't going to be getting any easier.

Defensively, things were looking much like the other night. They had very tight rotations and were battling for rebounds despite the height disparity. An all-around solid effort from the team overall, but I can't help but think that the effort they exert on that side of the court makes it harder for them to have their legs under them on some of these jump shots. I said it in earlier posts that this level of intensity on the defensive end cannot be sustained by the guards on this team. It also seems to be putting a lot on Bam. He had a great night defensively as always, but the amount of work he had to put in tonight on the glass was just ridiculous. Nearly every time he a shot went up for Miami there was at least three Raptors, usually a combination of Siakam, Achiuwa and Anunoby, preventing him from making an impact on the offensive glass. Bam finished the game with 14 points on 4-of-14 shooting to go with 10 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and one steal. He continues to struggle on the offensive side of the ball to start the season.

Next up for the Miami Heat they head out on the road for the first time this season as they face off against Portland Trailblazers Wednesday, October 26th at 10:00 PM EST in the Moda Center. The defense this team has shown over the last two games gives me confidence that they are going to figure it out offensively during this road trip. See you guys then!