Unnecessarily nervy last minute or so, "Heaters," Hey Zeus, but what an impressive win. Quick look under the hood at the numbers:
-Miami outscored Toronto by 4 in the 4th and by 11 in the 3rd.
-"Heat" shot shockingly well, 51.9% (47.4%) and played good D, 42.2% (30.8%). Did not shoot well from the line, 14/22, 63.6%.
-Fred Van Fleet and Pascal Siakam were co-game high with 29. Two other "Raptors were in d-d's with 19.
-The "Heat" had six guys in double figures. Toronto didn't know who half these guys were. The Composer led with 23 on exquisite 7/10 (7/9) shooting. Victor Oladipo, out of mothballs, out of the rotation, played 27', surely his season high, and had 21 points, ditto, on similarly exquisite shooting, 7/11 (6/9). Vic did have 5 turnovers, however.
-Tyler almost had a 3W. 18, 9, and 8...Almost had a 4W, turned the damn ball over 8 times! TYLER!!!
-Kyle was oh so fine in his homecoming, 16 points and 10 asts to only 2 t.o.'s.
-Bam had 16 and 9.
-Caleb had 4 blocks, 1 steal, and 4 points but was a team-high -11. Very rare for a starter on the winning team.
-Mercury Morris had 10, 3, and 4, with 3 steals as topping.
-Donut only played 13' and had a donut.
"Heat" win their 51st game of the season over the East's hottest team. They are only the third team to reach the gold standard, the others are Desert and FedEx, and lead the conference by 2 games with 3 left to play. Right now if the play-in went chalk Miami would host 8th seed HotAtl in the first round.