TORONTO — After 79 regular-season games, the Miami Heat have their answer. It’s play-in again.

And yet, also more questions, questions arguably even more concerning, considering the lack of fight Tuesday night against the Toronto Raptors when hope was still alive for something better than a fourth consecutive trip to the daunting pre-playoffs.

On a night there was something tangible to play for — which might not be the case in the three remaining regular-season games — Erik Spoelstra’s team cowered in the moment, with a 17-point deficit before halftime, a gap that would grow to 27, in what turned into a 121-95 loss at Scotiabank Arena.

“We were disappointed for sure that we weren’t able to bring another level of competitive spirit,” Spoelstra said, with the teams meeting again Thursday night on the Raptors’ court.

So now a season that has teetered stands on the brink, the Heat’s season possibly to be over within a week, even before the best-of-seven opening round of the playoffs.

“We’re not thinking about the next step right now,” Spoelstra said.

At No. 10 in the East, the Heat would have to win two road games next week in the play-in round just to make the playoffs. Otherwise, no playoffs for the first time in seven seasons.

While there have been signs of life in recent weeks, including a road victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers and a home victory over the Philadelphia 76ers, the current reality is losses in nine of the last 12, a team that hardly looks poised to go into Charlotte, Orlando, Philadelphia or Toronto in the play-in round and come away with the pair of road victories needed to advance.

“We have a spirit,” Spoelstra insisted in the wake of what came off as dispiriting on Tuesday night. “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.”

Last season, there was a feistiness about the Heat in the play-in round, as they won in Chicago and then Atlanta to advance. But that also was after winning eight of 12 to close out the 2024-25 regular season.

“It becomes the moment of truth where we have to respond,” Spoelstra said of the moment at hand, “and we have to conquer that.”

Tuesday night, the Heat looked very much like a team 79 games into a going-nowhere process, including center Bam Adebayo, four weeks removed from his 83-point game, closing with seven points on 2-of-13 shooting

So rest up for the play-in challenge ahead?

“We’re not at that point, no,” Spoelstra said. “We’re no different than other teams right now. We’re trying to get our game right, and that’s what we’re focused on.”

Adebayo, as team captain, concurred.

“Have to figure it out,” he said, “or else it’s gonna be home.”

To their credit, Adebayo and the Heat have made it out of the play-in round in each of their three previous trips the past three years.

“It’s another opportunity, man,” Adebayo said. “The best thing about it is we got a chance to still punch our ticket somehow.”

A seventh consecutive trip to the playoffs would be a franchise record.

Andrew Wiggins, who led the Heat on Tuesday night with 24 points against his hometown Raptors and was part of last season’s push from No. 10 to the playoffs, said Tuesday night was sobering

“We needed it, they needed it, and they played harder than us,” he said. “They wanted it more.”

Not exactly what a team wants to hear as it approaches a potential expiration date.

“We gotta figure it out,” guard Norman Powell said. “Honestly, I don’t got the answers. I don’t got the answers, but we gotta come up with some.”