“They made a great adjustment”, said Toronto All Star DeMar DeRozan. “But we’re not done yet”. The Eastern Conference Finals between the Toronto Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers will start Tuesday, May 17, at the Quicken Loans Arena.
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In Game 7, he shot 11-for-20 from the field, 5-for-7 from 3-point range and 8-for-11 from the free-throw line.
In his best game of the series, Lowry made 11 of 20 shots and had nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals.
If the Raptors have any chance of pulling the massive upset, this is the Kyle Lowry they need in order to do it. “They both stepped up and carried us”.
First, the Raptors will have to overcome LeBron James and the Cavaliers and if they manage to survive that, they’ll either meet the two-headed monsters of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and the Thunder or Stephen Curry and the Warriors in the NBA Finals. Toronto lost starting centre Jonas Valanciunas to a badly sprained ankle in Game 3 against Miami.
“It hasn’t hit me yet”, Lowry said of making it this far.
The game is still hot for the Toronto Raptors while the Miami Heat team has fallen from grace owing to the defeat in the playoffs.
The Cavaliers’ scouting reports were already at the Raptors chairs in their locker rooms when they arrived after the game.
Of more concern for Cleveland than rust – “We got our work in”, James said – is containing Lowry and DeRozan, who have combined for 50-plus points in their last three games, including 63 Sunday. “Tonight was just a great atmosphere and I knew that this guy to my left [Goran Dragic] was going to have an wonderful performance tonight”.
Guards Goran Dragic and Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 16 points each.
The Raptors are into their first ever Conference Finals, whilst LeBron laces up for his sixth straight. They swept through the first two rounds – beating Detroit and Atlanta. “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.
The 34-year-old Wade has played his entire career with Miami and has missed the playoffs only twice in 13 seasons.
Throughout this series, the Raptors had struggled to score against this Miami defence, never once breaking the 100-point barrier despite averaging 102.7 for the season.
The Cavs swept both the Pistons and Hawks and enter their series with Toronto on an eight-game playoff winning streak.
Leading 86-78 to begin the fourth quarter, Toronto stretched its lead to 16 on a dunk by Biyombo and back-to-back three-pointers by Carroll and Terrence Ross, from which point the home team cruised to victory. During the Raptors’ 15-4 run in the third that gave them a 17-point lead, Lowry was everywhere.
“Their most aggressive, most energetic burst was at the beginning of that fourth quarter and they put it away”, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
“Once we had them down, we basically wanted to keep them there”, added Toronto’s Terrence Ross.
You can bet that Heat president Pat Riley and salary cap expert Andy Elisburg will let Whiteside and his agent know about this if they offer him something close to the max. “Basketball has definitely grown a lot in my country, so for the Raptors to be able to make it to the Eastern Conference finals, popularizes the game more”.
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Toronto took three of four regular-season meetings against the top seeds. Three months later, the Raptors got a two-point home win over the Cavs as Cleveland outscored Toronto by 10 points when James was on the floor.
