A Toronto Raptors’ buzzer-beater forced overtime, but the Miami Heat held on for a thrilling 102-96 win over the Raptors Tuesday.
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Dragic led both parties in scoring for the second-straight game with 26 points and six assists while Wade followed with 24 points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Miami outscored Toronto 12-6 in OT. Joe Johnson chipped in with 16 points and seven rebounds.
“I haven’t shot the ball well for a while now”, Lowry said.
“I’m slow”, he said by way of apology for the delay.
With Toronto trailing 90-87 and needing to go the full length of the court, point guard and NBA All-Star Kyle Lowry answered those Toronto prayers.
The pressure the Raptors may have been feeling offers some excuse for the struggles DeRozan and Lowry had offensively, but that’s gone now.
Miami missed its first five shots, and the Raptors had baskets from DeRozan and Valanciunas, who was huge down the stretch. The Heat, a decaying championship roster who will only suit up two players from the 2014 Eastern Conference Champion team, will face the upstart Raptors, whose only player with Championship experience is newcomer Cory Joseph. Lowry was 3-13 from the field and only finished with seven points. The Heat committed three 24-second violations and came out shooting 2-of-10 from the field in the first quarter, while the Raptors got all 18 of their points from Jonas Valanciunas and DeMar DeRozan.
Lowry made his first basket nearly five minutes into the third quarter.
As the dying seconds of regulation ticked by, Kyle Lowry was 2-for-11 for a paltry four points, and was being badly outplayed by Miami Heat point guard Goran Dragic.
“When we do, I’m pretty sure you will know”, said DeRozan, to which Lowry piped in: “IF we do”. “I’m looking at the ball and I’m like ‘No way, this is not about to happen'”.
Trailing Miami 80-74 in the fourth quarter, Jonas Valanciunas put the Raptors on his broad shoulders and helped propel them to victory.
Lowry and his Toronto Raptors will have another shot at the Miami Heat when the teams meet on Thursday evening at the Air Canada Centre. “He’s there, but we have to believe in him, we do believe in him, and he’s going to come out of it”.
Raptors Coach Dwane Casey, too, has become very familiar with Wade, starting when he was an assistant coach with the Seattle Supersonics.
The Thunder lost Game 1 by 32 points and were thoroughly embarrassed.
After the Raptors’ Terrence Ross sunk a three-pointer with 6.5 seconds to go to trim the Heat’s lead to 89-86, Luol Deng’s ensuing inbounds pass intended for Wade went awry and nothing but trouble ensued for Miami.
While it was fairly clear that he sustained a right knee injury, the Heat have yet to release an official statement regarding Whiteside’s premature departure. “But as I stood up, the pain kind of went away”.
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“As long as he does the things he did at the end of the game defensively – making plays, screening, tough rebounds, putbacks and stuff like that – it doesn’t necessarily have to be a jump shot”.
