The last time these two met, the Heat won on the road courtesy of a dominating overtime performance. Can the visiting Raptors return fire tomorrow?

Off an ugly loss

The Miami Heat lost in embarrassing fashion Tuesday as they got stomped by the very depleted Washington Wizards, 124-105, who played without their top four scorers of the season.

Everything’s still looking pretty good for the most part, though. The Heat are 24-9 (15-1 at home) and rank third in the competitive Eastern Conference.

The Heat beat the Toronto Raptors in overtime last December 4th, 121-110. It was an intense game that was concluded by Miami crushing the defending champions in the extra period. The great play was featured on both ends as Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo powered the team to outscore the Raptors, 13-2.

Butler (20.8 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 6.6 APG, 2 SPG) and Adebayo (15.6 PPG, 10.6 PPG, 4.6 APG) head to tomorrow’s contest as the top threats in the Heat squad, but note that four more players are averaging over 12 PPG on the season.

Shaky stretch

The Raptors currently stand at 23-11 on the season (9-6 on the road), ranking fourth in the East. They have won two of their last three games, one of which was a 113-97 road victory over the Boston Celtics.

The defending champs’ path for a revenge game will be an uphill battle as they are taking on a terrific home team and while still missing the services of three key players – leading scorer Pascal Siakam (groin), starting big man Marc Gasol (hamstring), and key energy player Norman Powell (shoulder).

With Siakam out, Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet have increased their production. Lowry is back to his old high-scoring days all season and he has even turned it up a notch this past few weeks – 24 points and 8.6 assists in his last nine games. VanVleet, in his breakout year, is leading the Raps in total assists (201) to go along a career-best 18 PPG.

PREDICTION:

The Heat make the season series two-zip, 110-105.