TORONTO - With recent history heavily favouring the visiting team, the Raptors (6-8) will welcome the Miami Heat (12-3) back to the Air Canada Centre tonight in the hopes of knocking off the defending champions for the first time in nearly four years. Dont miss a single shot, live on TSN beginning at 7pm et/4pm pt. Winners of their last eight games, the Heat return to Toronto for the second time in the month of November. After beginning the season 4-3, allowing 100.9 points on 47 per cent shooting, Miamis resurgent defence has vaulted them back to the top of a weak Eastern Conference. Teams are scoring just 91.9 points, shooting 42 per cent against the Heat during their streak. "Its significant in the fact that youre playing against the championship team," Dwane Casey said of a match-up with the Heat, who have won their last 12 meetings with the Raptors - including six straight in Toronto - most recently a 104-95 victory on Nov. 5. "You can measure yourself a little bit, see where you are as a player, see where you are as a team but its not going to define our season, win or lose." The Raptors havent defeated Miami since Jan. 27, 2010, the winter before LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade in Miami. Although each of their scoring averages are down from a year ago, all three of the Heats all-stars are shooting above 50 per cent this season. Toronto nearly clawed back from a 15-point deficit in the final three minutes of Tuesdays contest at home to the struggling Nets. Instead, a missed Amir Johnson three-point attempt at the buzzer sealed the teams disappointing 102-100 loss. "We take two steps forward and we take a half a step back," Casey said, his team allowing Brooklyn to shoot 51 per cent Tuesday. "Thats the mark of a young team, trying to find themselves. But you can say that about a lot of teams in the league." "Its a trend in the NBA, period," he continued. "Theres probably three-to-four teams that can say, this is who we are and [are] playing that way. Theres a lot of teams, for whatever reason and specifically in the Eastern Conference, that are trying to find who they are and what they want to be." One month into the season, the Heat are one of only two Eastern Conference teams with a record above .500 and one of four teams - including the Raptors - with a positive point differential. "I dont think anybody really saw it coming," Chris Bosh said of the weak conference. "A lot of teams have struggled early. Its down a little bit but its a long season, Im sure a lot of teams will turn their fate around and start playing better basketball." Bosh is averaging 19.6 points in seven career games against the Raptors, his former team. He didnt play in the first meeting this season following the birth of his daughter. Trends and Tidbits DeMar DeRozan has led the Raptors in scoring in four of the last five games. Averaging 28.6 points in those contests, the Raptors guard leads in the NBA in scoring since Nov. 5. DeRozan is shooting 52 per cent from the field and 13-of-25 beyond the arch over that stretch. He has hit three or more treys in three of the last five games, a feat he has accomplished six times in the last 17 contests - dating back to last season - after doing so just twice in the first 311 games of his career. Kyle Lowry has led the Raptors in assists in each of the last six contests. He has recorded 49 assists with just 10 turnovers during that stretch. The Raptors can finish with seven wins in October/November for the first time since 2009 with a victory on Friday. What to Watch For Defending home court With perhaps their most complete efforts coming on the road - in Memphis and Philadelphia - the Raptors have struggled to maintain their focus on home court this season. They have an identical record at home (3-4) as they do away from Toronto and they have lost three of their last four at the ACC. "Our focus is not where it needs to be at home," Casey admitted after practice on Thursday. "Its hard to say [why]. I think its easy and kind of human nature to relax at home a little bit, thinking home is going to take care of you but the main thing is, you need to take care of home." Taking care of the ball The Raptors trailed by just four points after three quarters in the previous meeting with Miami before nine fourth-quarter turnovers - they had six in the first 36 minutes - ignited the Heat, who began to pull away. "We didnt take care of the ball," Casey said of that game. "They fuel their offence off of turnovers and that was our Achilles heel against this team the last time we played them." "You should be on high alert the entire time," he continued. "I think teams get fired up to play them, you lose a little focus whether they turn it up or not. I wouldnt say they take possessions off but they know when to turn it on and off and thats a characteristic of a good team. They know what possessions are important and what possessions arent important and believe me, theyre dialled in when they need to be dialled in." Who to Watch For Rudy Gay Immediately after Tuesdays loss to Brooklyn, a game in which he shot 3-of-12 and deferred to Johnson on the deciding possession, Gay went up to the teams practice facility where he spent the evening shooting. "The only thing I could do after that game was just go in and shoot some jump shots, get it off my head and also work on my game," said Gay, who is averaging just 14.7 points on 34 per cent shooting in his last three games. Although the Raptors forward generally gets up for match-ups opposite top tiered wing players and played well against James and the Heat last season, he struggled in defeat earlier this month. Gay was just 3-for-10, scoring 13 points and registered four turnovers - he leads the team with 48 total - in the Nov. 5 loss to Miami. "Ive never questioned Rudys commitment, not at all," Casey said. "Is he shooting the ball the way he wants to? No. But thats what he has to do, is work at that pace. Ive mentioned it to him, youve got to shoot at that fourth-quarter tempo when you work on your game at night time. Youve got to shoot it like its the game winning shot." LeBron James James has been dominant in every facet of the game during Miamis winning streak. Over the last eight games, the four-time MVP is averaging 27.6 points, connecting on 61 per cent of his field goals. Guarded primarily by Gay, James tallied 35 points, eight rebounds and eight assists against the Raptors earlier in November. "We know what LeBron likes to do," Johnson said. "The focal point is going to be on him. We might throw different looks at him, double teams." Injury Report Raptors forward Quincy Acy will be a game-time decision with a sprained right ankle that has kept him out of the last three contests. Adidas NMD Womens Black Pink . Jacob Jacques, Andrew Ryan and Jonathan Drouin also scored for Halifax (37-18-3), who outshot the Islanders 40-26. Kevin Darveau stopped 25 shots. Bradley Kennedy had the lone goal for Charlottetown (18-33-5), which has nine losses in its last 10 games. Pharrell x adidas NMD Human Race Black . -- Nelson Cruz has only two hits in 15 at-bats against the Kansas City Royals this season. http://www.cheapnmdonline.com/wholesale-...d-r2-china.html. But unfortunately for the Niagara Falls, Ont., native, a pulled muscle wouldnt allow him to go past the second set. Japan sealed its victory over Canada in the first-round Davis Cup tie after Nishikori downed an ailing Dancevic 6-2, 1-0. Adidas NMD R1 Triple Black . -- The Guelph Storm are moving on to the Western Conference final after defeating the London Knights 5-4 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League playoff action. Adidas NMD Wholesale China . Still, Inter moved one point ahead of Parma in the race for fifth place and the final Europa League spot. Udinese remained 14th, 11 points above the relegation zone. Inter was beaten 2-1 by Atalanta at home on Sunday and has won only seven of 16 matches at the San Siro this season, as the squad seems to still be searching for its identity under new owner Erick Thohir and first-year manager Walter Mazzarri.When I left work Thursday night, the New York Yankees were two outs away from a 5-2 victory over Baltimore in what would be Derek Jeters final home game of his Hall of Fame career. At that point, he had two RBIs and a run scored, but that wasnt dramatic enough for the baseball gods. Adam Jones cracked a two-run homer off of Yankees soon-to-be free agent closer David Robertson and then Steve Pearc,e briefly a Yankees teammate of Jeters, slugged a game-tying solo shot. After driving home in silence as I often do after a long day to wind down, curiosity got the best of me and I turned on the radio and started twirling the dial to see if I could pull in the Yankees broadcast. After a few seconds, I found it and was shocked to hear the Os had tied the score. In fact, by this time, Brett Gardner was laying down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move the go-ahead run to second with one out. That brought Jeter to the plate. Whether you love the Yankees or you hate the Yankees, you had to be pulling for Derek Jeter in that moment. Then it happened. He sliced the first pitch from reliever Evan Meek to right for the game-winning RBI single. I almost had to pull off the road to drink in the moment, wishing I was one of the 48,613 on hand at Yankee Stadium. Half of me hoped Jeter would skip the trip to Boston and end his career right there, but thats not the Jeter way and he will serve as the Yankees DH in the three-game series at Fenway this weekend. Jeters heroics made me think back to the great Ted Williamss final game at Fenway Park on September 28, 1960. The Splendid Spinter had had a terrible season by his standards in 1959 and had been implored by the Red Sox management to retire. He stubbornly refused and came back at age 42 to hit .316 with 29 home runs, vaulting him over 500 for his career.In his final game at Fenway, the Red Sox were playing a Baltimore Orioles team that had pummelled them 17-4 the day before. There were different accounts of how many fans actually witnessed that game. Many sources claim 14,175, but author John Updike who was at the game, and wrote the classic piece for New Yorker Magazine, Hub fans bid Kid Adieu claims there were only 10,454 on hand. In any event, Williams gave them what they came for. In the eighth inning, he smashed a solo homer off off Jack Fisher into the Red Sox bullpen that cut Baltimores lead to 4-3. Williams chugged around the bases never looking up and never acknowledging the fans. Williams had had a tumultuous relationship with the fans, who quite often booed him earlier in his career and once vowed never again to tip his cap to them. He came out to play left in the top of the ninth, but was immediately lifted so the fans could cheer him one more time. It hardly mattered after the home run, but Boston did come back to win in the bottom of the 9th, 5-4, thanks to a botched double-plaay grounder, where the relay throw was fired into the BoSox dugout.ddddddddddddThat was the final game of Ted Williamss career as he opted not to go to New York for the final three games against the AL pennant-winning Yankees. The National League legend who stood along side Williams in the glory years of the 40s and 50s was Cardinals great Stan the Man Musial. He played his final game, also at age 42, on September 29, 1963. It was the final game of the Cards regular season at home at old Busch Stadium. There were 27,576 in the park that day. Musial had a single in his first at-bat, but the game quickly settled into a pitchers duel between the Cincinnati Reds Jim Maloney and the Redbirds Bob Gibson. Finally, in the bottom of the sixth, in a scoreless tie, Musial strode to the plate and delivered a go-ahead RBI single. After a prolonged standing ovation, manager Johnny Keane lifted Musial for a pinch runner. Ironically, the second baseman who made a futile dive to knock down Musials final hit was all-time hits leader Peter Rose, who was in his rookie campaign. The game didnt finish at 1-0. In fact, it went 14 innings before the Cardinals finally prevailed 3-2. Gibson went nine innings and struck out 11, but, of course, didnt get the decision. There was a Canadian connection to this game, as well. Dr. Ron Taylor, the Toronto native, who later was one of the Blue Jays physicians, was in his first full season with the Cards and took over from Gibson and pitched two scoreless innings. Three legends who played their entire careers with one franchise - three of the greatest organizations in baseball. Jeter may not rank with the likes of Williams and Musial, but considering he delivered a walk-off single for the victory and it was in New York, in front of the largest crowd and a huge TV audience, it may turn out to be the most memorable final game of the three. At the very least, it will give a new generation a Williams or a Musial moment of their own to talk about for years to come. - The Cleveland Indians pitching staff has an mpressive record within its grasp this weekend over its final three games at home against the Tampa Bay Rays. They are within nine strikeouts of the all-time record set only last year by the Detroit Tigers with 1419. Some would argue Clevelands pitchers had to be that good since the Indians lead the Majors in errors at last count with 113. - Just in case they should meet in the postseason, keep in mind that the Los Angeles Angels took the season series from the Oakland As, 10-9 by winning seven of their last nine meetings. - And a belated happy birthday to one of the Jays all-time fan favourites, John McDonald, who turned 40 on Wednesday and is going to be playoffs again with the Angels after getting his first World Series ring last season with his hometown team, the Red Sox. ' ' '