NBA: Raptors hope to tighten hold on playoff spot with sweep of Heat

The Toronto Raptors aim to solidify their hold on a playoff spot Thursday night as they look for a sweep of the season series against the visiting Miami Heat.

Toronto dominated the first of back-to-back games with Miami, earning a 121-95 home victory on Tuesday. The win left the Raptors (44-35) in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, while the Heat (41-38) remain locked into the play-in round. Toronto now leads the season series against Miami 3-0.

"This is the time of the year where we can show who we really are," said RJ Barrett, who posted 16 points and eight rebounds. "It was a quality win, but like Immanuel Quickley said, we're looking at this like a playoff series. Winning Game 1 has nothing to do with Game 2. They're going to come out more energized and play even harder. So, we have to be ready."

Miami can finish no higher than seventh in the conference.

"We were disappointed for sure that we weren't able to bring another level of competitive spirit to this," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "That's what's disappointing. We're not thinking about the next step right now."

The Heat have been held under 100 points six times this season, three of them against the Raptors.

"We have a spirit," Spoelstra added. "Our guys bounce back, but we have to rise to the level of the competition. That's the bottom line right now. We have these opportunities to meet our competition, and we come up short."

Bam Adebayo, limited to seven points and nine rebounds, said: "We didn't play with enough effort, and that was the bottom line. The best thing about it is we got a chance to still punch our ticket somehow."

Toronto dominated inside, with a 70-34 advantage in points in the paint and a 23-6 edge in second-chance points.

"They did a great job keeping us out of the paint," Spoelstra said. "We had good looks from three, but you've got to knock down some of those to keep them honest. Otherwise, they're going to keep on swarming the paint. They did a tremendous job of that."

Andrew Wiggins led Miami with 24 points. For Toronto, Scottie Barnes scored 25 points, and Brandon Ingram added 23.

"We really focused on what our defensive keys were," Barnes said. "We wanted to just help each other guard the ball, and we did a great job of that and building out from there."

Quickley returned after eight games sidelined with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, playing 17:35 minutes and recording three points, four assists, four rebounds, and two steals.

"Super, super important minutes that he gave us tonight," Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. "I think him playing also took a little bit of the load off Scottie."

Toronto reserve Jamal Shead recorded a game-high 11 assists in just over 23 minutes.

"I thought for the majority of the game we played with the intensity that you need for these types of games," Rajakovic said. "We still had empty minutes. We still had some breakdowns on the defensive end that we need to clean up and continue getting better. But overall, the intensity and urgency were there."

-Field Level Media/Reuters