The Heat’s lopsided month of December continued in a home loss to the Raptors, as Miami has lost eight of their last nine games.
(Photo via Miami Heat/X)

Since emerging as the surprise team of the East at a once 14-7 record, the Miami Heat have gone an atrocious 1-8 ever since.

Tuesday night featured yet another abysmal effort from a Heat team that has plummeted from the third seed all the way to the current play-in eight seed. After a discouraging 112-91 loss to the visiting Toronto Raptors, Miami is now sitting at a .500 overall record of 15-15. The worst part? There appears to be no answers on the horizon.

Bam Adebayo’s offense remained nonexistent. Norman Powell has suddenly became inefficient. Kel’el Ware, who was coming off a terrific three-game stretch, was held to just 21 minutes of action by coach Erik Spoelstra.

The Adebayo struggles are similar to his slump from last year. The All-Star big man was held to just 9 points on 4 of 11 shooting in this one. And he has averaged 11.7 points on 37% over the past four games.

As for the Raptors, they were led by Scottie Barnes’ 27 points and 8 boards on 10 of 14 from the field. Immanuel Quickley also chipped in a statline of 18/5/7. Toronto shot 48% overall as a team and 37% from 3-point range compared to Miami’s 40% and 27%, respectively. The Raptors won the rebounding battle 50-40, including 15 offensive rebounds for second chance points.

Tyler Herro’s offense would assuredly add a boost in a stretch where the Heat have been struggling to score and lacking a go-to offensive option. However, his injury prone season continued, as he was sidelined with his toe contusion once again. Herro has missed 24 of the team’s first 30 games this season.

Even with Herro in the fold, this stretch has highlighted a long list of issues and holes that this roster really has on both ends of the floor. The next opportunity to respond will come on Friday in Atlanta versus the Hawks.

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