The Miami Heat, led by Dwyane Wade and Luol Deng, play the Toronto Raptors, led by Kyle Lowry, in Game 1 of their second-round NBA Eastern Conference playoff series on May 3, 2016 at Air Canada Centre.
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The Heat will be delighted with the win but it certainly wasn’t smooth sailing by any means as the Heat needed to regroup in the overtime period after the Raptors’ Kyle Lowry drained a buzzer beater from halfcourt to level the score and send the game into overtime.
The Heat went on a 7-2 run to open the third, and soon the Raptors were down by then.
Wade – veteran of 13 National Basketball Association seasons -was held to four points on 2-of-7 shooting in the first half.
“We know he’s not shooting the ball well”, Casey said. But we’ve got to get out of this next series.
But, after stipulating, “I’m not going to make any excuses”, he said.
Before surviving overtime, the Heat blew another six-point lead with even less time left. However, Toronto responded with a 12-4 surge late to pull to within two, 83-81. As much as the Raptors denied that their disastrous playoff history was affecting their play as they struggled to put away a limited IN team, it was plain as day that they looked uncomfortable and tight for long stretches last round.
“We had to win the game twice tonight”, said Wade, who moved into 16th place on the NBA’s playoff scoring list (3,638 points), passing Elgin Baylor (3,623).
The Raptors defense forced 20 turnovers, and despite Lowry’s poor performance, had a chance in overtime to steal the first game of the series. That was before several astonishingly lazy defensive sets gave the Raptors easy dunks to make it a one possession game, yet again. He went 3-for-13 from the field for a total of seven points, three of which came on the aforementioned play.
After spending some time on the floor, he made it to the bench and then the Miami locker-room on his own steam.
Ross, more Ross-like in the second half, ended up with 19 points in just 26 minutes played.
Jonas Valanciunas paced the Raptors with 24 points, 14 rebounds and three blocks. They’ve only won one series opener, in the second round against Philadelphia in 2001. “I know I’m better than this. He’s an All-Star for a reason, like we all say”, Toronto power forward Patrick Patterson said.
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.
“Goran just wants to win”, Wade said.
BENCH MATCHUP: Miami’s backups got outscored 32-23, on average, by Charlotte’s reserves in that series.
The Raptors struggled to develop any real consistency during the series, and as a result – after finishing second in the regular season – it went all the way to seven games.
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Powell had studied Wade meticulously, and not just in the 48 hours he prepped for this game.
