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MIAMI - The Miami Heat have high standards. They called a team meeting last week when they had a one-game skid.
So it wasn't surprising the Heat weren't overly enthralled with Sunday's less-than-scintillating 95-89 win over lowly Toronto at AmericanAirlines Arena.
One figured the Raptors (8-17) would be easily dispatched and Miami's stars would be on the bench at the end finalizing Super Bowl watch-party plans. Instead, the Heat, after leading 85-70, watched the Raptors score 12 straight points and get within three in the final 2 ½ minutes.
Yes, Miami players woke up just in time to avoid a shocking upset. But a trend is developing about the Heat not exactly looking so hot against teams with losing records.
Miami (18-6) is 8-3 this season against foes with losing marks and 10-3 against teams with records of .500 or better. In addition, this season they've needed a last-second shot to win at Charlotte, which is now 3-21, and barely escaped at Detroit, now 6-20.
"We have to do better," forward Chris Bosh said of games against sub-.500 outfits. "We do have to improve. And that's something we'll continue just to talk about and work on. (The Raptors) did a good job of different looks (using a zone), and some teams just don't go away. But we have to work on what we want to do and that's putting teams away, kind of putting them more in a disadvantage. If we're up 12, try to push it to 16 or 18 and really put more pressure on them."
Miami's losses to sub .500-teams all have come in the past 3 ½ weeks, defeats at Golden State and losses both at home and on the road to Milwaukee. It was after the latest defeat to the Bucks, 105-97 last Wednesday, that the Heat had their team meeting.
It looked to have worked when they won 99-79 on Friday at Philadelphia. But even that didn't stop LeBron James Jr., the 7-year-old son of the Heat star, from ragging on his dad when he was being taken Saturday morning to a pee-wee basketball game.
"When I got home Saturday morning and I'm on my way to his game, he said, 'You can't beat Milwaukee, huh"' James said. "He said, 'Why you lose to Milwaukee every time you play Milwaukee?' And I absolutely didn't say nothing to him. I just kept walking."
James, who scored a game-high 30 points, made sure Sunday his son didn't have any more ammunition to use against him. After the Raptors got within 85-82, James scored four straight points and the Heat soon put the game away.
It was about time.
"We want to play well against everyone," James said. "Of course, the sub.-500 teams, they get up to play us and they made some shots… They made two 3s that cut the lead down, 24 on the clock basically."
During the 12-0 run, the Raptors frustrated Miami by getting 3-pointers by Linas Kleiza and Jerryd Bayless just before the shot-clock buzzer. But the Heat didn't help themselves by going 4:13 without scoring, missing four shots and committing two turnovers.
So James ended up needing to play 38 minutes. A few minutes extra rest wouldn't have hurt during this compact season, which includes the Heat next week playing three games in three nights.
While James shot 10-of-17 and grabbed nine rebounds Sunday, he did have five turnovers and handed out just two assists. It marked the first time this season James hasn't had at least five assists in a game, and broke an overall 31-game regular-season streak of handing out that many or more.
Heat guard Dwyane Wade added an efficient 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting. Afterward, Wade gave about a two-minute interview and headed quickly out the door, which seemed par for the course following a get-it-over-with-and-get-to-the-Super-Bowl-party game.
"We'll take this win and move on," Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said of a game that was pretty much a win for the Heat and nothing else.
The Heat move on to another home game Tuesday. But perhaps it's not good news that the foe, Cleveland, also has a losing record.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at christomasson@hotmail.com or on Twitter @christomasson
