Tested but never broken.
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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. Luis Scola started at power forward in the three regular season meetings but has sat out nine of the past 10 games, so that’s no help.
James, who last week said he felt Curry deserves to be this year’s MVP but questioned the meaning of the award, said he’s not offended, offering “none taken”, when presented with Lowry’s comment. “I don’t work hard in the summer to scrap everything I work on in the playoffs”. That’s something we have to keep in mind: just go out there and play tough.
DeRozan had a not-so-efficient 12-for-29 shooting game from the field.
This series offers several fascinating individual matchups, with the Kyle Lowry-Kyrie Irving clash at point guard dripping with talent and competitiveness.
“You knew deep in your heart that you believed those guys would come around”.
Dwane Casey called the series victory a “very important” step for the franchise, but added: “We’re not done yet”. We never use excuses.
Casey developed that philosophy over decades of coaching stars as an assistant at the University of Kentucky and the Seattle SuperSonics. “It’s always a challenge going against those guys”. And when the Raptors’ all-stars left the game a minute later, the crowd ushered them off the court with a standing ovation. “Last year was the first year of us rebuilding to get there”.
Lowry drilled a three with 3:23 to play that followed up a basket by DeRozan, and the Raptors went up by a whopping 25 points.
The series opens today in Cleveland. “Now we know who we’re playing and now we can get focused and now we can lock in on what we’re trying to do”. Toronto as a whole knocked in 10 more free throws than Miami over the first two quarters, while maintaining a significant rebounding advantage that would sustain for the rest of the contest: Toronto outrebounded the Heat 50-30. For a country. For a city.
Aside from the guards rebounding so well, center Bismack Biyombo hauled in 16 rebounds of his own in addition to scoring 17 points. The fan section named “Jurassic Park” sure liked the Views from outside the Air Canada Centre.
Thousands of fans braved the cold – and fittingly, lightly falling snow – to watch the game on the giant screen in Maple Leaf Square.
They merely play as well as they did to in the first two rounds. Those demons have been vanquished.
The Raptors are right where they are supposed to be – the No. 2 seed in the East – and will play the No. 1 seed, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in the conference finals, starting Tuesday in Cleveland (8:30 p.m. ET).
The Raptors became the 15th team in National Basketball Association history to win two Game 7s in the same postseason. “I enjoyed it”, Johnson said of his time with the Heat.
The Cavaliers hit 77 3-pointers during their four-game sweep of the Atlanta Hawks, and will be a tough opponent for the Raptors, who usually put more emphasis on defending the paint than the perimeter. If the Raptors have any chance of pulling the massive upset, this is the Kyle Lowry they need in order to do it. After the playoff failures of the past two seasons, it was time for Toronto to prove it was a legitimate contender – or face the possibility of seeing this team broken up despite being in the middle of the most successful stretch of play in franchise history.
In the end, the Heat’s small ball lineup wasn’t enough to topple the hot-shooting Raptors at home.
Dwyane Wade and Goran Dragic each scored 16 points for the Heat, who were looking to rebound from key injuries to Chris Bosh, and Hassan Whiteside.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra paid tribute to the Raptors’ never-say-die approach. He found it three times. The Heat played just eight players on a shortened rotation, with all eight of them being able to put up points on the board in game 6.
Out at the arc, things get more challenging for the Raptors.
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“We wanted to make a statement”, Patterson added, “as far as me and him setting the tone, offensive and defensively rebounding”.
