Lowry is back to an elite level after struggling with his shot earlier in the postseason, scoring more than 30 points three times in the second round, including 35 in Game 7.
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Rod Black, Jack Armstrong and Leo Rautins break down the Raptors’ dominating Game 7 win, including how Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan rose to the occasion with huge performances on home court, and the impressive mental toughness the team has shown as a whole all season long.
‘We never doubted Kyle and DeMar, ‘ Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.
Toronto dashed Miami hopes when they started the fourth quarter on an 11-2 run to take a 97-80 advantage.
DeMarre Carroll added 14 points for Toronto, Bismack Biyombo scored 17 points and grabbed 16 rebounds while Patrick Patterson had 11 points and 11 rebounds. There are several matchups in this series that the Warriors can exploit, and the Thunder do not have good enough shooters to beat the Warriors at their own game.
After sweeping Detroit and Atlanta in the first two rounds, the top-seeded Cavs will have gone nine days between games when they take the floor Tuesday night.
“We’re a totally different team than the regular season”, James said. Moving forward his production is vital to go up against the Cavaliers, with Jonas Valanciunas still nursing a ankle injury sustained in game 3 in Miami.
“I missed some shots I could have made, but we won the game”, Lowry said.
ROAD TEST – The Raptors won two of their three meetings with the Cavaliers this season, but both victories came before a raucous crowd at the Air Canada Centre.
Scouting booklets for the Cleveland series were sitting on the chair of each Raptors player inside their locker room less than an hour after the game.
“We’re about to get our work in now that we know who we’re playing”, James said. But he said, as he did when the stars were totally misfiring, that the Raptors were always going to ride with their big guys.
Guards Goran Dragic and Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 16 points each.
The Miami Heat are embracing small ball in ways rarely seen in the National Basketball Association and are on the verge of taking it to the Eastern Conference finals.
“With what we had, we fought tooth and nails”, Wade said. They need to hope Cleveland is rusty and win one of the first two games.
It’s never easy seeing the Miami Heat lose.
“We look at ourselves as a team that’s going to continue to play hard and grow and go from there and let the chips fall where they may”, Lowry said.
With a first-ever place in the Eastern Conference finals beckoning, the Raptors turned the screw and quickly extended their lead with both Lowry and DeRozan outstanding.
The Heat whittled the lead to six on Tyler Johnson’s 3-pointer before the Raptors took an 86-78 lead into the fourth quarter. A 3-pointer by Terrence Ross bumped the lead to 16.Patterson hit two free throws with 7:30 to play and the lead increased to 20 points.
The sting of the loss and of the Heat’s season coming to an end was still settling in for the players and coach Erik Spoelstra on Sunday evening, but it was also a moment to really consider what they had done given what they had lost. “They got to lace them up and we got to lace them up and we’ll go at it”. The Cavs, undefeated (8-0) thus far, will open the series against the Toronto Raptors at 1-12 odds to advance to the NBA Finals.
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The Raptors led by as many as five points in the first quarter and were ahead 25-24 entering the second quarter.
