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MIAMI — Sunday night in Charlotte, they shot but didn't rebound. Two nights later in Orlando, they rebounded but didn't shoot.
As a result, the Toronto Raptors were 0-for-2 on their Southern U.S. swing before visiting the hospitable confines of American Airlines Arena last night to play the Miami Heat — who are about as far south as a team can go in the NBA standing.
The Raptors defeated the Heat for the second time in a month, this time 108-83 before an attendance announced as 19,143 — a crowd that was mostly invisible.
Let's put it this way: Traffic was no problem after the game outside the arena.
The Raptors' Carlos Delfino, left, gets around the Heat's Ricky Davis Wednesday night in Miami. The Raptors won 108-83. (REUTERS/Hans Deryk)
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The Raptors, losers of their three previous games, assumed control of this one early.
"That was hard to watch," Miami head coach Pat Riley said. "I should write a cheque tomorrow to each season-ticket holder and send them back [money] at least for tonight."
"We just played well," Raptors coach Sam Mitchell said. "We just talked to our team about how all teams go through highs and lows. It wasn't that over all we were playing bad."
It was the first victory for the Raptors since a sore knee forced all-star forward Chris Bosh to leave the game early in Friday's loss to the Indiana Pacers at the Air Canada Centre.
Last night's victory wasn't all easy going for the Raptors, as forward Andrea Bargnani could confirm. After the game, he talked through a swollen mouth and had a bruise on his left cheek.
Miami forward Alexander Johnson was charged with a flagrant foul after colliding with Bargnani with 9 minutes 57 seconds to go in the third quarter.
As he went to the hoop, Bargnani was hit by what appeared to be Johnson's elbow — "I don't remember," Bargnani said — and went down beneath the basket and appeared to hit his head on the floor.
Bargnani was down for a couple of minutes while being attended to by team staff. After he made two free throws, he went to the dressing room for further treatment.
X-rays were negative and there was no sign of concussion. But despite his wearing a mouth guard, a tooth was shifted and will require further treatment. Bargnani left after scoring 12 points.
"I was conscious," Bargnani said, adding his vision was fuzzy for about 30 seconds.
Centre Rasho Nesterovic scored 16 points to lead the Raptors and Jamario Moon had 14. T.J. Ford scored 13, while Anthony Parker had 12.
Marcus Banks scored 21 points for Miami.
"Tonight we rebounded, our defence was solid like it had been for the last couple of games and we made some shots," Mitchell said. "It was important that we got off to a good start. Andrea hit a few shots early, it got him going and kind of got our team going."
"We just have to relax and play our game." Nesterovic said. "We're a good team with or without Chris [Bosh]. Obviously, we are much better with Chris."
"I don't know what happened the last three games," said Jose Calderon, who had nine points and 13 assists. "We just didn't play our best basketball.
"We talked this morning at the hotel and everybody was ready to play."
Before the game, Bosh could not pin down when he might return. "It takes time," he said. "I just have to be patient and make sure I do the right things so when it's time to come back I'll be ready."
That time would come he said, "when I'm pain free. I'm still waiting for it to progress."
The Raptors play next tomorrow at home against the Washington Wizards.
