Brandon Ingram scored 23 of his 38 points in the first half Thursday night and the Toronto Raptors defeated the visiting Miami Heat 128-114.
The Raptors (45-35) swept the four-game season series with the Heat (41-39) and moved into a tie for fifth place in the Eastern Conference with the Hawks (45-35). Toronto holds the tiebreaker edge on Atlanta. Both teams are one game ahead of the Orlando Magic (44-36) in the battle to make the top six and avoid the play-in tournament.
The Heat are locked into a play-in spot for the fourth consecutive season.
RJ Barrett added 22 points for the Raptors, who also defeated the Heat on Tuesday in the first of back-to-back games between the teams.
Collin Murray-Boyles contributed 17 points for Toronto. Scottie Barnes scored 13 and Immanuel Quickley had 11 points in his second game back from a foot injury.
Bam Adebayo tallied 24 points and added 11 rebounds for the Heat. Tyler Herro scored 15 points, while Davion Mitchell added 15 points and 11 assists. Jaime Jaquez Jr. also scored 15 points and Pelle Larsson chipped in with 10 points.
Toronto led by 26 early in the third quarter, but Miami whittled it to 87-81 on a Jacquez trey. But a 10-2 Raptors response led to a 102-90 lead after 36 minutes.
Barnes scored the first five points of the fourth and Toronto’s lead quickly was 17. Quickley’s 3-pointer bumped the lead to 22 with 8:45 to play.
The Heat came out playing with more zest than in their loss on Tuesday, but the Raptors led 32-26 after the first quarter.
Toronto led by nine in the second quarter but the Heat trimmed the margin to one after Barnes missed a layup and Keshad Johnson converted his layup with 5:46 to go.
The Raptors responded by exploiting Miami’s porous defense with a 9-1 burst to lead by nine with 4:19 left in the half. Barrett’s layup gave Toronto a 16-point advantage on the way to a 69-50 halftime lead.
Toronto had a 19-5 advantage in second-chance points in the first half.
The Raptors scored the first seven points of the third quarter to lead by 26.
Both teams exceeded the 50% plateau from the field, with Miami converting 46 of 82 (56.1%) shots and Toronto knocking down 44 of 86 (51.2%).
But the Raptors enjoyed a tremendous advantage at the free-throw line, hitting 27 of 34 (79.4%), while the Heat only attempted 14 and converted eight (57.1%).
Toronto also outscored Miami, 24-9, in points off turnovers as the stingy Raptors only committed four miscues.
–Field Level Media
