The Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors continue their National Basketball Association second-round playoff series on Wednesday night, with Game 5 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. After Biyombo gave Wade a finger wag and the crowd a Usain Bolt “To Di World” pose, Miami scored the last 10 points of the first half and the first three of the third quarter.
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From the opening tip, it sincerely appeared that the home team in the Raptors were looking to send a serious message on Wednesday night. Dwyane Wade has been the best player in the series and was at it again with 30 points on 13-of-24 shooting in a 94-87 overtime win on Monday – the third overtime game in the series.
That’s when Wade came back into the game. If he can’t, Spoelstra may again need to turn to the unconventional late lineup of Wade, Dragic, Joe Johnson, Winslow and Josh Richardson, that miraculously got the Heat within a single point late.
DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry are the focus of course, and rightly so. You get to see the importance of a player really. HEAT head coach Erik Spoelstra said following the game that Deng will undergo an MRI on Thursday to determine the severity of the injury. He was injured when he took a hard foul after going up for a rebound during the first half of a Game 3 loss Saturday. But it felt a hell of a lot more like the Toronto Raptors team that we watched play all season long.
Big man Bismack Biyombo proved to be a force in the paint, finishing with 10 points, six rebounds and four blocks, while Miami’s Dwyane Wade (20 points on 6-for-14 shooting) was held in check until the fourth and received little help from his supporting cast.
Whether it was some exhausted legs, remaining rust, or the Blazers’ switching an aggressive big onto him off the pick-and-roll, Curry was just 3-of-9 shooting for seven points in the first half.
DeRozan, by contrast, scored 10 points in the first period, with Lowry adding nine in the quarter for Detroit.
Both teams will be without their starting centres Wednesday for the second game in a row.
The Raptors then made eight of their first 11 shots to open the second half.
A goaltending call on Wade’s shot with 21.7 seconds to go moved Miami within four points. He sprinted off the locker room to have it examined and missed just a few minutes, before returning to play the final four minutes as his team led by just five.
Thompson led the Warriors with 33 points, hitting 13 of 17 from the field and six of nine three-point attempts. The Raptors don’t win on Wednesday if their stars don’t play big. Toronto jumped out to a 9-0 lead against the Heat starters, and Miami seemed to somewhat calm down when Josh McRoberts entered the game. By the end of the half, Lowry had 16 points – more than he had scored in seven of the 11 previous playoff games.
Game 6 is Friday night in Miami while Game 7 – if needed – would be Sunday afternoon in Toronto.
With the Raptors up by three, Lowry knocked down a three-pointer with 52.5 seconds left to push the lead to six points. DeMarre Carroll falls on his wrist and suddenly Luol Deng disappears. With the win, the Raptors take a 3-2 series lead over the Heat.
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“Ah, I got nothing to say. I worked my tail off this summer to get to where I can still play at an elite level”, he explained. Toronto’s shooting guard has largely been a missing guard in the playoffs, and his effect on the game when he is unable to score, either from the field or the free-throw line, had turned into a tremendous negative. “I don’t think so, and they would tell you that, but there’s other things that they’ve contributed to us winning with other than scoring the basketball”, Casey said.
