Lowry and DeRozan were 12-of-35.
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The Toronto Raptors let one slip away to open the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals Tuesday night, a frustrating end to a crazily dramatic night that cost them home-court advantage yet again. Both teams started relatively small lineups except for their centres, Hassan Whiteside and Jonas Valanciunas… With 3.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Toronto down by three points, he received an inbounds pass in the backcourt and came as close as you can to stepping out of bounds on the sideline.
Joe Johnson scored 16 points and Josh Richardson had 11. As Miami was heating up, Toronto’s offence went cold and the team shot just 38 percent in the quarter.
This was the second overtime playoff game in Raptors franchise history, and their second defeat.
While it was fairly clear that he sustained a right knee injury, the Heat have yet to release an official statement regarding Whiteside’s premature departure. Whiteside missed his first free throw, but made his second.
However, Miami regained their composure and roared back with eight unanswered points to lead 98-90 and eventually win 102-96. If he makes those free throws after baskets, the final might have been different… But even with Kyle Lowry’s 40-foot three-pointer at the end of regulation, the Raptors were unable to complete the comeback. The Raptors point guard is now shooting just 30.6 percent from the floor in the playoffs and has connected on only 8-of-50 attempts from three-point range.
Toronto now looks ahead to a pivotal Game 2 on Thursday, with Miami having the chance to take a 2-0 lead while starting the series on the road. He finished the night with 24 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks and was a +10 in just over 41 minutes of play. The talent the two teams will put on the floor is fairly even so strategy will come into play.
Toronto’s Terrence Ross set a career playoff high with 19 points and Cory Joseph had 10.
The Heat shot a ridiculous 47.2 percent from three in each of their four wins in round one.
“It’s basketball, a series is a series”, DeRozan said. “Because I know I’m way better than this”. Dragic pushed the tempo, capitalized off the Raptors’ mistakes, and aggressively found ways to score on the offensive side, including a crafty three-pointer which he got fouled on. “We lost the game”. “Now it’s just more of a challenge, that’s all”.
Dwayne Wade had 24 points, six rebounds and four assists. It was definitely a touchy-feely game. “I still feel like he’s going to come back”. And they were definitely probably trying to figure out what we were going to do. Wade was a player he watched growing up and tried to emulate – especially the way Wade could make defenders bite on his pump-fake.
Get breaking news and SI’s biggest stories instantly. “It hurts to go back into the locker room with an L after we played so well”. Those are the plays and possessions we have to take care of.
However, Lowry and Co. can console themselves with the fact that it was just the first game of a best-of-seven series. We got out of one series with me not playing well, shooting the ball well.
Lowry said he can take some confidence in the fact the Raptors won the in series without much of a scoring contribution from him. “But as I stood up, the pain kind of went away”. I’m going to continue to be aggressive, to shoot shots and take the onus.
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Added DeRozan: “I tell him all the time, good or bad, I have the utmost confidence in him. We regrouped, we got the ball into the right hands and our defence was great”. “I’m looking at the ball and I’m like ‘No way, this is not about to happen'”.
