Wade made a smooth bucket to put Miami up six in the third minute of OT. However, the Raptors clawed their way back into the game, cutting the lead to four or less multiple times with less than four minutes to play.
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It was an improbable shot by Kyle Lowry. Dragic appeared to kill the Raptors momentum sinking a 3-pointer with 40.6 seconds remaining, prior to Lowry’s buzzer-beater. Though Toronto’s big man scored 24 points in game one, Heat fans should expect Hassan Whiteside to recover from this minor defensive lapse. Making his way off the floor and into the locker room during the first quarter of the series-opening matchup against the Toronto Raptors, Whiteside is widely regarded as an injury prone player causing some concern going forward. He had just six assists. “I know we won’t advance if I don’t play better”, Lowry said Wednesday.
“I’m going to hang out here for a little bit and just be in the gym, try to get back to just enjoying it, being in the gym, and having fun”.
Goran Dragic scored 26 points to top the Heat, while Dwyane Wade finished with 24, moving into the 16th spot on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. The Raptors forced overtime thanks to a lucky Lowry midcourt shot at the end of regulation but they got dominated again in the extra period and suffered the disappointing 102-96 loss at home.
The Toronto Raptors almost erased a 10-point fourth quarter deficit on Monday night. “I passed up a ton of shots”, he said, and that clearly harmed the Raptors’ offense.
There may come a time for the Cavaliers when the 3s just aren’t falling with the accuracy that they have in the first two games of this series, and Lue is bracing for that. Ross made one free throw to cut the lead to 89-87. I think it’s good. It’s like a hitter – hitters go through slumps – and he’s there. The HEAT committed five turnovers in the fourth quarter that led to 10 points for the Raptors, which aided their comeback. But Wade pounced on a DeRozan turnover to clinch the victory for Miami.
“I’ve had a few struggles like this in my National Basketball Association career, but nothing this big”, Lowry said.
The Heat started the fourth on a 7-2 run to build a 10-point lead. The Raptors All-Star logged just seven points, but he sent the game into overtime with a miracle 3 from half court.
On paper, the Raptors are favoured, winners of five of their last six meetings with Miami. The Thunder host the San Antonio Spurs four days after they evened the series with a tense 98-97 win in San Antonio in Game 2.
“He’s definitely the reason why we won this game tonight”, said Toronto star DeMar DeRozan.
The Raptors are used to playing from behind. “You could tell there was tension but at the same time they had to play with each other”.
BENCH MATCHUP: Miami’s backups got outscored 32-23, on average, by Charlotte’s reserves in that series. Even in the first round against in, he took 14 shots a game.
Then he went back to shoot some more. In the playoffs, however, he has averaged 13.0 points and shot 8-for-50 (16 percent) from beyond the arc.
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The Toronto Raptors were spectacular during the regular season, but this hasn’t been the case in the playoffs.
