The Raptors played poorly, then very almost pulled off a victory after Kyle Lowry’s long-distance buzzer-beater forced overtime.
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Perhaps the Raptors can overcome the clear limitation of the team’s best player - they played the Heat close Tuesday without much of a contribution before the hail mary shot fell.
Goran Dragic (26 points) and Dwyane Wade (24 points) led the way for Miami. Both squads missed point-blank shots and struggled getting into rhythm. Free throws almost cost Miami, as the team missed several down the stretch and shot just 65 percent from the charity stripe.
Valanciunas was a force for the Raptors all night.
From there JV never looked back.
Jonas Valanciunas had 24 points and 14 rebounds, DeMar DeRozan added 22 points, Terrence Ross chipped in with 19, and DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph had 10 points apiece. Joe Johnson, who dominated the Raptors in the playoffs two years ago when he was with Brooklyn, added 16 points. James’ confidence in his team was correct on Wednesday night when the Cavs embarrassed the Hawks in Game 2 via a big blowout.
Toronto, like Miami, wasn’t supposed to go seven games against their opponent but that’s exactly what they did. “Be more aggressive, maybe be less aggressive, and just find a way to be myself”.
Lowry is averaging 13 points while shooting 30.6 per cent (13 per cent on three-pointers) in these playoffs.
And what would occur, in a 102-96 overtime victory.
When Lowry goes, DeRozan goes. He’s made a lot tougher shots.
-The Heat’s starting backcourt of Wade and Dragic combined for 50pts in this one winning the battle of starting backcourts. It wasn’t over, however, with Luol Deng turning the ball over on a bad inbounds pass to Wade which went out of bounds and gave Toronto another shot at tying the game on a 3-pointer.
The Heat were 8-of-11 from behind the arc, while the Raptors were 5-of-21. The Raptors cut the lead to three and had a chance to tie it with 10 seconds left, but turned the ball over. That shot wasn’t the difference in the ball game, but it once again highlighted the Raptors vulnerability along the perimeter. The guard, who had scored 25 points in Game 7 last round, spearheaded a 27-20 Heat advantage in the third quarter with 10 points. Even after his struggles against IN – he shot 31.6 percent overall and 7-for-43 from deep IN the first round – it is unusual to see him miss five above-the-break 3-pointers.
“I’ll take that award, I mean it’s an award. take some type of good with it”, he laughed – but followed up with a heavy sigh.
“I don’t care if you miss 15 shots, I’m going to stand behind him just like if he’s making 15 shots in a row”.
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Had they gone on to win the game, the Raptor’s 0.38% win probability would’ve been a really big deal.
