TORONTO — — Scottie Barnes scored 25 factors, Brandon Ingram completed with 23 and the Toronto Raptors beat Miami 121-95 on Tuesday evening, an end result that locked the Heat into the play-in event for a fourth consecutive season.
Jakob Poeltl scored 17 factors for the Raptors (44-35), who moved inside a recreation of idle Atlanta for the No. 5 spot within the Eastern Conference playoff chase. Toronto is aiming for its first playoff journey since 2022 and leads Philadelphia (43-36) by one recreation within the race for the sixth and closing assured berth within the East.
RJ Barrett scored 16 and Jamal Shead had 11 assists off the bench for Toronto.
A 19-2 run by the Raptors within the first half turned a two-point deficit right into a 13-point lead, and Toronto maintained the double-digit margin nearly all the remainder of the way in which.
Andrew Wiggins scored 24 factors for Miami (41-38), which now doubtless must win its closing three video games to have any real looking probability of escaping the No. 10 seed going into the play-in event for a second consecutive 12 months.
Tyler Herro and Norman Powell every scored 14 for the Heat. Bam Adebayo — who had an 83-point recreation for Miami final month in opposition to Washington — was held to seven factors on 2-for-14 taking pictures, and the Heat misplaced for the ninth time of their final 12 video games.
Toronto improved to 3-0 in opposition to the Heat this season. The Raptors have swept Miami in a season sequence solely twice earlier than — going 4-0 in opposition to the Heat in 2007-08 and 2018-19 — and can intention to take action once more on Thursday when the groups end a two-game sequence in Toronto.
The Raptors improved to 13-4 in opposition to Southeast Division groups this season.
The groups play once more Thursday in Toronto.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
