Valanciunas will miss the remainder of Toronto’s Eastern Conference semifinal against the Miami Heat with a sprained right ankle.
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“I was just going for the rebound and I felt someone fall on my knee”, Whiteside said.
While Washington Wizards guard John Wall missed no time with an MCL sprain this past season and Dallas Mavericks guard Deron Williams missed only one game with such an injury earlier this season, Curry has missed considerably more with a Grade 1 MCL sprain, the least serious grade. When Valanciunas (who had precautionary X-rays taken that came back negative) went out, Luis Scola got his first minutes of the series off the Raptors’ bench….
“I think you’ll see more hard shows with [Haslem] and [McRoberts], and they’ll show a lot more and switch a lot, because they’re mobile bigs”, said Toronto’s Kyle Lowry, who finished Game 3 with 33 points.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra believes the series will be competitive no matter who is or isn’t playing.
Jonas Valanciunas also exited Game 3 with a sprained right ankle. He can probably be considered unlikely for Game 4 on Monday, with his status worth monitoring each day at practice and shootaround. Through 10 playoff games, the big man has averaged 15.0 points and 12.1 rebounds, including 13.6 points and 11.9 rebounds in 26.3 minutes per contest during Toronto’s opening-round series against the Indiana Pacers.
Whiteside entered Game 3 of the second-round series averaging 12.7 points, 12.1 rebounds and 3.1 blocks in nine games this postseason.
“I’m not focused on that”, Wade said.
LISTEN UP: The Raptors have blown two hugely significant defensive assignments at crucial times in this series.
The Raptors are about to find out just how big he was.
“We can’t change schematically or philosophically what we do so that’s not going to change”, Casey said. “We’ve got to be conscious going into Game 4 and take advantage of it”.
The Heat responded with a layup from backup center Udonis Haslem, followed by a crafty layup from Dwayne Wade.
There was bad miscommunication leading to a wide open Goran Dragic three-pointer he made to send Game 2 to overtime, and the Raptors dodged a bullet in Game 3 when Joe Johnson missed an equally wide-open shot with his team down three points and less than 20 seconds left.
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The first two contests were marred by 41 Heat turnovers, while the remaining ones feature a “Back To The Future” look for Miami, because they will probably start Amar’e Stoudemire at center.
