TORONTO _ There has to be more than Hassan Whiteside for this roster and this season to work for the Miami Heat. And when the support is there, it has to be for more than spurts.
Friday night, Whiteside became the first Heat player to open a season with double-doubles in each of the first five games and all it translated into was a 96-87 loss to the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Center.
That's not to say there wasn't quality offered through the rest of the rotation, but the support from Goran Dragic and Tyler Johnson mostly came early, while the contributions from Justise Winslow and James Johnson came late.
Whiteside closed with 21 points, 16 rebounds and three assists.
For the Raptors, there was the ongoing consistency of NBA scoring leader DeMar DeRozan, who closed with 34 points, and a 20-point bench spark from forward Terrance Ross. That provided to be enough to allow Toronto to withstand a 4-of-15 night from point guard Kyle Lowry. DeRozan, in fact, became the first player to open a season with five consecutive 30-point games since Michael Jordan in 1986.
While the Heat consistently fought back from double-digit deficits, boosted by the return of guard Josh Richardson, who made his season debut following his September knee injury, the lack of contributions from starters Dion Waiters and Luke Babbitt proved too much to overcome.
Dragic added 17 points for the Heat, Tyler Johnson 16, Winslow 13 and James Johnson 11. Winslow opened 0-for-7 from the field.
Amid the softest portion of the Heat's schedule, with two days off now to follow, then a Monday game in Oklahoma City followed by two more days off, a Heat rotation shakeup could be looming.
After closing within three at the end of the third period and then again falling behind by double digits, the Heat closed with 84-89 midway through the fourth quarter on a Tyler Johnson 3-pointer.
But that's when the Raptors again extended their lead.
After falling behind by as many as 16 points in the third period, the Heat closed the quarter with a 10-0 run to go into the fourth within 75-72.
Despite shooting 7 of 16 on 3-pointers in the first half, the Heat went into halftime down 52-46.
The Heat essentially were limited to a three-man game in the first half, with Dragic and Tyler Johnson each scoring 13 points and Whiteside closing the opening two periods with 10 points and eight assists.
The Heat pushed to an early 12-point lead before taking a 27-24 advantage into the second period.
The Heat went nine players deep with the game in the balance, with Derrick Williams and Udonis Haslem the only fully healthy players not to see action.
The Heat remained without sidelined guard Wayne Ellington due to a quadriceps bruise, with forward Josh McRoberts only available to inbounds duty due to his recovery from a fractured foot.
It was the first meeting between the teams since the Raptors eliminated the visiting Heat in Game 7 of last season's Eastern Conference semifinals, a game that proved to be the last of Dwyane Wade's Heat tenure.
The game opened a two-game trip that concludes Monday against the Oklahoma City Thunder, before the Heat return home Thursday for Wade's lone visit of the season with the Chicago Bulls to AmericanAirlines Arena.
Eight weeks after he said he expected to be sidelined for six to eight weeks with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee, Richardson made his season debut.
Richardson, who went through his first contact practice Thursday at AmericanAirlines Arena, was a full participant earlier in the day during the morning shootaround.
The second-year guard entered with 3:50 to play in the first quarter in place of Waiters.
Richardson was called for a traveling violation on his first offensive sequence of the season. He later was off with his first shot of the season, a 3-point attempt late in the opening period. He then checked out with his second foul with 10:23 to play in the second period, replaced by rookie guard Rodney McGruder.
Richardson was anxious going in.
"I'm ready," he said in the pregame locker room. "I've been waiting for it. I'm excited."
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