Dwyane Wade and Goran Dragic each scored 16 for Miami. The Raptors won 116-89.
Advertisement
Paced by the standout guard tandem of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, the Raptors were on the Cavs’ heels throughout the regular season and grabbed the second seed with a 56-26 record.
The numbers suggest Toronto doesn’t have the range, efficiency or the firepower to contend with Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals showdown that begins on Tuesday at The Q. However, the Cavaliers won’t take them lightly. “We came up obviously one game short of that”.
Toronto dashed Miami hopes when they started the fourth quarter on an 11-2 run to take a 97-80 advantage.
Game 7 of the Miami Heat- Toronto Raptors series is scheduled on May 15 at the Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Canada.
They combined for 63 points in the Game 7 rout of Miami, with Lowry accounting for 35 points.
Biyomobo had 13 rebounds in the Game 6 loss, too, but what made his Game 7 performance so different was that the Raptors got him involved in the offense.
Kyle Lowry and the Toronto Raptors didn’t have history on their side, so he and the Raptors decided to make some of their own on Sunday. “It was just about being out there and having time to just reflect on things, think about the game that I grew up as a kid playing, the game I love”, Lowry told reporters the day after. “That’s all that matters. I’m proud of myself, I’m proud of the guys but this is definitely a tough one to swallow” said Winslow.
In his best game of the series, Lowry made 11 of 20 shots and had nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals. Deng led Miami with eight first-quarter points. A standing-room-only crowd of 20,257 cheered every one of Lowry’s baskets, roared in appreciation when he was subbed out with the game winding down, and then chanted “We want Cleveland” as the final seconds ticked away.
“That’s just what he do”, DeRozan said of Lowry. He won us countless games. Only Toronto kept finding them.
“Man, we just fought back”, DeRozan said of the regular-season games against Cleveland. Even as Lowry and, to a lesser extent, DeRozan have found their offensive games as the playoffs have gone on, the Raptors still could not put together a comprehensive performance.
Fifteen years later, there was no clanked potential game-winner from a Raptors star.
For a pair of All-Stars who struggled through numerous first 11 games of these playoffs, both have risen to the occasion the past three games.
The story of the Raptors is clearly Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, which player should be a bigger concern for the Cavs? As we have seen him do so many times, Lowry took a wide arc around to the baseline, timed it so he would get to the ball as Winslow was looking up ahead the court, and poked the ball out of his hands.
The Raptors, for their part, have played their best when they’re a little scared – after losing Game 1s, in Game 5s with the series tied, in Game 7s.
“It’s always great to go against another great point guard, an All-Star in this league”, Irving said.
Casey declined to say whether center Jonas Valanciunas, who sprained his right ankle in Game 3, would be ready for Cleveland. Casey has played the nobody-believes-in-us card this postseason, and without much validity.
“We came out and we haven’t played that type of basketball (that we did) in the quarter in the whole series”, said Carroll, who had 14 points. They played big. I thought the game in Miami they didn’t do that.
“I think we’ve done everything we set out to do, but again, we’re not done yet”, said Casey.
It’s also an historic one. “They had a lot of energy as a team”.
Their progress this year leaves Charlotte, the Los Angeles Clippers, and New Orleans as the only three National Basketball Association teams to never reach a conference final.
Advertisement
“We’re so tightly associated with the event-going experience that it was natural for us to move aggressively and chase this opportunity”, StubHub President Scott Cutler said.
