Takeaways from the Heat’s road win over Raptors, and reaction to Kendrick Nunn’s big night

Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 111-102 win over the Toronto Raptors (5-9) on Wednesday at Amalie Arena in Tampa to begin a four-game trip. The Heat improved to 6-7 and won consecutive games for the first time this season:

Kendrick Nunn’s resurgence continues to help Miami Heat top Toronto Raptors in Tampa

After a slow start to his second NBA season, Heat guard Kendrick Nunn has put together two consecutive encouraging performances.

Nunn followed up an 18-point game in Monday’s win over the Detroit Pistons with a season-high 28 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field, 4-of-6 shooting on threes, eight rebounds and five assists off the bench on Wednesday.

Nunn turned in a really strong second quarter against the Raptors, as he scored 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the period.

Nunn also finished Wednesday’s win with a team-best plus/minus of plus-11 in 35 minutes.

“K-Nunn has incredible competitive character. He really does,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He has a grit and a perseverance to him. But not only do you have confidence that he’ll be able to respond with this kind of adversity. But you respect him so much that you’re like really rooting for him and you really want it for him.

“He just grinds and works at it every day and then we really needed it today. We needed his playmaking, we needed his scoring. They’re a very good defense and he really produced.”

Before this two-game stretch, Nunn was averaging just 5.5 points on 40 percent shooting and 1.7 assists in limited playing time this season.

But in two games this week, Nunn has looked more like the player he was for most of last season, when he made the All-Rookie First Team and finished second in the voting for the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award.

“It’s the minutes for me,” Nunn said of what has been the difference this week. “Just getting in the game and getting in the flow of the game. Then after that, I can just be myself. Get in the flow of the game, get into a rhythm and make winning plays.”

Nunn started in each of his 67 regular-season appearances last season and was one of the NBA’s top rookies before the season was suspended in March. He averaged 15.6 points on 44.8 percent shooting from the field and 36.2 percent shooting on threes, 2.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists in 62 games before the pandemic paused play.

But after recovering from a COVID-19 diagnosis in July, Nunn couldn’t pick up where he left off when the Heat’s season resumed in August in the Walt Disney World bubble. His offensive efficiency dropped off and he was moved to a bench role in the playoffs, as he averaged 6.1 points on 39.1 percent shooting, 2.1 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 15 games last postseason.

Nunn has looked more like the pre-bubble version of himself this week. It’s a small two-game sample size but an encouraging development for the Heat, nonetheless.

“I was impressed with everything — the decision-making, creating his own shot, making shots, on defense he was solid,” Heat veteran guard Goran Dragic said of Nunn. “Just in general, he put two games in a row where he played well and that only helps our team. He was amazing tonight, I’m happy for him and we’ve still got a lot of games left, so we’re going to need him.”

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High-turnover performances have hurt the Heat’s offensive efficiency, but Miami has been one of the league’s top shooting teams this season.

Miami entered Wednesday with the NBA’s fourth-best team shooting percentage at 48.6 percent.

That trend continued Wednesday, as the Heat overcame a 19-turnover night with 48.8 percent shooting from the field and 18-of-40 (45 percent) shooting on threes.

The result: Miami posted its third-best single-game offensive rating of the season, scoring 115.6 points per 100 possessions against Toronto despite its continued turnover issues.

The Heat has averaged a league-high 18.3 turnovers to go with a league-worst 17.9 percent turnover rate this season.

Center Bam Adebayo did not have a standout shooting night with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting, but he still finished with 13 rebounds and seven assists.

“The ball finds energy. The energy was very contagious on offense,” Adebayo said. “Really, we’re out there having fun, passing the ball, sharing the ball and everybody gets to feed off that. So that’s kind of how we want our offense to be.”

Heat forward Duncan Robinson put together one of the best shooting seasons in NBA history last season, and he’s already proving he’s far from a one-season wonder.

Robinson’s three-point shooting was an efficient offensive weapon again on Wednesday, as he finished with 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting on threes. He scored 12 of his 14 points on 4-of-4 shooting on threes in the first quarter.

It’s the continuation of a strong start for Robinson, who has averaged 14.8 points while shooting 45.9 percent on 8.4 three-point shot attempts in the first 13 games.

Those are very close to the numbers Robinson produced last season, when he averaged 13.5 points while shooting 44.6 percent on 8.3 three-point shot attempts.

Where did that get Robinson last season?

Robinson set a new Heat record for threes made (270) in a season, finishing tied with Damian Lillard for the third-most made threes in the NBA behind only James Harden (299 threes) and Buddy Hield (271). Robinson also joined Stephen Curry as the only two players in league history to finish a season with 270 or more made threes while shooting better than 44 percent from deep.

In other words, Robinson is on pace for another all-time great shooting season this year.

The Raptors’ offense produces a lot of three-point shot attempts, but not enough went in Wednesday.

Toronto, which entered shooting 37.3 percent on a league-high 43.1 three-point shot attempts per game this season, shot 16 of 49 (32.7 percent) from three-point range against Miami.

The Heat’s defense was especially good in the fourth quarter, holding the Raptors to 19 points on 28.6 percent shooting from the field and 3-of-12 shooting on threes in the period.

The Raptors’ backcourt duo of Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet combined to score 32 points on an inefficient 9-of-30 shooting in the contest.

Miami mixed in its 2-3 zone defense look throughout the game.

Wednesday marked Tyler Herro’s 21st birthday. It also marked the third consecutive game Herro has missed because of neck spasms, as the shorthanded Heat used its 10th different starting lineup in the 13th game of the season.

Herro traveled with the Heat to Tampa for the start of its four-game trip, but he wasn’t ready to return from injury on Wednesday. Before the game, Spoelstra said he didn’t have a new update on the second-year guard’s status “other than he’s making progress.”

The Heat also remained without wing Jimmy Butler (health and safety protocols), guard Avery Bradley (health and safety protocols) and center Meyers Leonard (left shoulder strain) on Wednesday.

Butler, Bradley and Leonard did not travel with the Heat to Tampa for the start of the trip. It’s unclear whether they’ll join the team at any point during the trip, which continues Friday with another game against the Raptors before coming to an end with two straight games against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday and Monday.

Without Herro and Butler, the Heat is without two starters who are primary offensive options. Butler has played in just six of the Heat’s first 13 games.

As a result, Miami used its 10th different starting lineup in the 13th game of the season. As a comparison, the Heat used 15 different starting lineups in last season’s pandemic-shortened 73-game schedule.

Spoelstra started Dragic, Gabe Vincent, Robinson, Kelly Olynyk and Adebayo on Wednesday against the Raptors.