It was a rough outing for the Miami Heat up North as they lost to the Toronto Raptors in ugly fashion by a score of 121-97. However, even the lopsided final score does not tell the full story of the performance the Heat had in Scotiabank Arena Wednesday night.

Miami's brutal game started from the very beginning where Toronto came out to a 13-2 run and ended the first period making seven of their 10 shots from deep. They closed the quarter with a 23-point lead where the Heat couldn't hit from anywhere on the court.

The poor start could be attributed to the travel, but they would surely come back right? Not quite as by halftime, the Heat were down a whopping 35 points, which is the biggest hole in the franchise's history. As said by Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra after the game to the media, the team suffered from an “avalanche” according to Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald.

“I can’t say I would have predicted that from our prep this morning or arriving to the arena,” Spoelstra said. “It just happened. It was an avalanche at the beginning of the game. Our starters definitely did not set the tone for the game and then it just proceeded to get worse as that first half went on.”

Spoelstra talks about the aspects that led to the huge hole at halftime

Before Wednesday's game, the Heat were coming off of a three-game winning streak where their shining light was on the defensive side of the ball. Miami had allowed under 100 points scored in the streak where even one of them was under 90 against the Charlotte Hornets last Sunday. Spoelstra said he didn't see that “spirit” in the loss to Toronto.

“I can go across the board in terms of disposition, glitches, attention to detail and then finishing plays,” Spoelstra said. “We just didn’t have any of that kind of spirit that we’ve shown the last three games.”

So what was the problem? It could clearly be pointed out by the discrepancy from the three-point line where by the end of the first half, the Raptors made 14 of 22 from deep whereas the Heat shot an eye-opening one of 16 from beyond the arc. While that obviously has a lot to do with it, Spoelstra also harps on the defense in transition and on-ball.

“Those two areas we’ve been focusing on and we’ve been making some progress with that,” Spoelstra said. “Tonight it would be tough to notice that we made any progress. That was probably our worst game in both areas tonight.”

Tyler Herro on the defense the past few games compared to Wednesday

Someone who agrees with Spoelstra's take on the flaws was star Tyler Herro who tied with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo in points with 16 on the team. He thought the strengths of the defense was shown in the gritty road win against the Brooklyn Nets Monday, but it didn't “carry over” Wednesday.

“I think it starts with on-ball. But then also off the ball, guys being active in their shrink spots in their help positions,” Herro said via The Miami Herald. “Not allowing their guys to see open elbows, open lanes to drive. I thought we did a good job of that last game, but it just didn’t carry over to tonight.”

Valiant comeback from Miami in the second half

If there is a bright side, the Heat would make a slight come back in the second half after being down a colossal amount at halftime. They would start on a 21-5 run and even ended the third period out-scoring Toronto 30-16 ,which in any other game, someone who wasn't watching would think Miami was winning. However, they were still trailing by 21.

They would go on another run to start the fourth quarter and even cut their deficit to 13 with just under nine minutes to play. While fans might've been on the edge of their seats hoping for a huge comeback, the Raptors ruined those chances and got the lead back to 27 points.

“There were a lot of things that were better in terms of the on-ball defense. There was more of a commitment to take that challenge,” Spoelstra said. “We got it to 13 and then made a couple mistakes that led to threes and then it went to 20 from there. Once we got it to 13, we had a chance. I just felt that we needed to get it to single digits.”

Spoelstra not worried about poor three-point shooting as of late

The Heat have been known for their efficiency to shoot the ball from three-point range, but in the past few games, it has been on a downward trend. On the other hand, Spoelstra isn't worried about it and in terms of aspects about the team to fix, it is “low” on the “list of priorities.”

“That’s very low on my list of priorities,” Spoelstra said. “I thought we got some good clean looks, actually to start both games. And our game does not need to be dependent on whether we make threes or not to be able to defend.

Miami will come back home for a short one-game stint Friday as they face the Atlanta Hawks in what should be another celebratory night as they retire Udonis Haslem's jersey. The team is 24-17 on the season which puts them sixth in the Eastern Conference.