The Miami Heat put the final nail in the coffin with their play-in fate on Tuesday with an ugly loss to the Raptors on the road.
(Photo via Miami Heat/X)

Another inconsistent season has led to a destined fourth straight year as a play-in team for the Miami Heat, which was made officially official in a blowout loss to the Toronto Raptors 121-95.

Miami came out completely flat with discouraging effort on both ends of the floor to open up the first of a two-game set in Toronto. Heat fans have seen these types of nights time and time again throughout this season, and this one comes with just three games until the start of the play-in tournament and postseason.

This was a final stretch of games that Miami really should have been stringing together wins for their last chance to build some sort of rhythm. Instead, the Heat have now lost seven of their last 10 and dipped to a 41-38 record— just three games hovering over the .500 mark. They will likely go into the play-in as the final 10 seed and have to win two games on the road to get a chance at making the playoffs, just like they did last year.

Toronto on the other hand improved to 44-35 with the win, and remain in the East’s sixth seed— a spot that Miami had many chances to make a run for but buried themselves in this 10th seed hole. The Raptors had control of the game from the start, leading with a 64-51 first half edge. They won every quarter, and held the Heat to just 36% shooting and 27% from deep.

The Raptors length have always posed as a matchup problem against Miami in recent years. Even with that being the case, the Heat’s biggest body in Kel’el Ware was held to just 17 minutes off the bench, even after a dominant statline in the team’s previous win against the Washington Wizards.

Coach Erik Spoelstra’s up and down management of Ware’s role has been questionable all year long.

Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Norman Powell all struggled to put their imprints on the game with very minimal offense between them. Andrew Wiggins led with a team-high 24 points on 8 of 13 shooting, but seemed to be the only Heat player to show up. Toronto was led by 25 and 23 points from Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram, respectively.

Additionally, Miami lost the rebounding battle 56-44, including giving up 15 offensive boards leading to second chance points. They also committed 15 turnovers on the night.

The Heat will run it back for a rematch in Toronto on Thursday, in what will be just the third game remaining in this forgetful 2025-26 regular season.

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