Raptors coach Lenny Wilkens hopes his players remember a tidbit of knowledge he has worked to plant in their brains for some time now.

"As I tell the players over and over again, you play the team, not its record," he said yesterday in anticipation of today's game against the struggling Miami Heat.

Playing the worst team in the NBA last Thursday, it took a Charles Oakley flagrant foul and subsequent ejection for the Raptors to step up their play and squeak out a 96-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls (4-20 before last night's game).

Now facing the team with the second-worst record, Wilkens is hopeful his players haven't erased his sage advice from their memory banks. "We're not going to overlook Miami," Wilkens declared ahead of the Raptors' final home game of 2001 against the 5-19 Heat.