Toronto @ Miami preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 3, 2019 ) Miami 121, Toronto 110

The Miami Heat were starting to look like one of the best teams in the league during a five-game winning streak that included victories over Philadelphia, Utah and Indiana but crashed right back down to earth on Monday with a 123-105 setback at the depleted Washington Wizards. The Heat will try to make sure that performance was the outlier when they host the Toronto Raptors on Thursday.

The Wizards were missing five rotation players, including All-Star guard Bradley Beal, on Monday but managed to shoot 51.2 percent from the floor and force 19 turnovers against Miami. "A lot of players were missing from this game. It was a trap game," Heat guard Goran Dragic told reporters. "If you want to be the top team in the East, we need to know that every night you need to bring it and we didn't do that tonight, and it's a good lesson for this group and hopefully we're going to fix that." Miami is going to see another team missing several rotation players in the Raptors, who are managing to survive and thrive with three of their top six players sidelined and had no trouble in a 117-97 home win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday. Toronto will play 10 of its 15 January games on the road, where it owns a 9-6 record.

TIME: 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: NBA TV, Sportsnet One, FS Sun

ABOUT THE RAPTORS (23-11): Toronto switched up its lineup on Tuesday, inserting Rondae Hollis-Jefferson into the starting five in place of struggling small forward OG Anunoby. Hollis-Jefferson contributed 14 points and five rebounds in 28 minutes while Anunoby, who totaled 18 points on 8-of-22 shooting over the previous three games, added 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, seven rebounds and four assists in 30 minutes. "I thought both of them were more focused, way more energetic," Raptors coach Nick Nurse told reporters of Anunoby and Hollis-Jefferson. "They were down and guarding. They were rebounding. When you're like that, other good things - like your shooting and making strong moves - seem to follow."

ABOUT THE HEAT (24-9): Miami was able to let its offense bail out some lapses on the defensive end during its five-game winning streak but the problems on defense stood out Monday with the offense struggling as well. "To me, it just shows we’re not there yet," Heat swingman Jimmy Butler told reporters. "We're not as good of a team as we think we are. Like I've always said, 'we have so much more to learn and so much more to get better at, but we've got a long way to go.' There's still a lot of season left, but we'll figure it out. We'll definitely figure it out." Butler scored 27 points in the setback and reached 20 or more in 13 of 15 games in December.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Heat SF Justise Winslow (back) sat out the last 12 games and there is no firm timetable for his return.

2. Raptors SG Patrick McCaw (arm) is questionable for Thursday while SG Norman Powell (shoulder), PF Pascal Siakam (groin) and C Marc Gasol (hamstring)
remain out indefinitely.

3. Miami earned a 121-110 overtime victory at Toronto on Dec. 3 behind a triple-double from Butler.

PREDICTION: Heat 115, Raptors 106