Heat stay perfect at Vegas summer league with rout of Raptors, move into Sunday’s semifinals

The regular-season Miami Heat had to make it to the playoffs the hard way, working their way through the play-in bracket.

The summer-league Miami Heat have simply steamrolled their way to the four-team playoff bracket of the Las Vegas NBA Summer League.

In storming past the Toronto Raptors 109-73 Friday night on the UNLV campus, the Heat improved to 4-0 in the event, next to play in the semifinals on Sunday afternoon (ESPN), with a potential appearance in the championship game to follow Monday night.

Pushing to a 13-0 lead at the outset, the Heat never looked back, despite Keshad Johnson sitting out the game due to the ankle sprain sustained in Wednesday’s victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

The game featured the third consecutive double-double and fourth in six summer-league appearances by Heat first-round pick Kel’el Ware, with the 7-footer out of Indiana taken at No. 15 closing with 17 points, 10 rebounds and four steals.

While Johnson, the undrafted forward out of Arizona on a two-way contract, was sidelined, the Heat otherwise came out with their summer heavy hitters in the bid to advance to the semifinals.

That had summer coach Dan Bisaccio opening with a lineup of Ware, Cole Swider, Josh Christopher, Pelle Larsson and Isaiah Stevens.

The Heat then immediately maximized that lineup, jumping out to their 13-0 lead with the game opening with a Ware alley-oop dunk, followed by a Larsson four-point play, a Christopher 3-pointer, a Swider transition layup and a Ware dunk off the fourth Stevens assist on the Heat’s first five baskets.

The first two reserves off the Heat bench then were Caleb Daniels and Warren Washington, with Alondes Williams and Zyon Pullin following,  Pullin relieving Stevens after Stevens had five assists in his first five minutes. CJ Butler, the son of Heat assistant coach Caron Butler, made it five deep off the bench.

The Raptors did not reach double digits in points until Ja’Kobe Walter, the first-round pick out of Baylor, converted a 3-pointer with 7:58 left in the second period.

Point differential initially was a concern entering the night when it came to making the event’s four-team playoffs, with five teams entering the night undefeated. A loss by the previously undefeated San Antonio Spurs while the Heat were playing then took point differential out of play for the Heat.

The Heat led 32-7 at the end of the opening period, 61-24 at halftime and 87-49 through three quarters.

Beyond Ware’s contribution, the Heat got 21 points from Swider (4 of 8 on 3-pointers), 17 from Christopher (3 of 5 on 3s), 12 points from Larsson, 11 from Williams and eight assists from Stevens.

While the game was not competitive, it was contentious at one point, with Raptors second-round pick Jamal Shead ejected in the third quarter for a Flagrant 2 foul after a shot to Swider’s groin as Swider was draining a 3-pointer.

The Heat flirted with the largest-ever victory in the Las Vegas NBA Summer League, a 106-56 Heat victory over the Los Angeles Lakers’ summer roster in 2012.

With the win, the Heat improved to 6-1 in summer play. They opened their summer schedule with a 105-66 loss to the Golden State Warriors’ summer roster.