Take quality shots. The Raptors owned the glass against the Pacers; that won’t be the case against the Heat, unless they can get Whiteside into foul trouble.
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Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, DeMarre Carroll, Patrick Patterson, Jonas Valanciunas.
“You just think about that moment, when there’s nobody in the gym with you, with no pressure”, DeRozan said.
Raptors fans despised Paul Pierce in the playoffs.
Toronto almost squandered all of a 16-point, fourth-quarter lead in Game 7 against in before pulling out an 89-84 triumph and is still waiting for the shots to fall for All-Star guards DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry.
Despite an onslaught from IN in the fourth quarter, the Toronto Raptors are heading to the second round of the National Basketball Association playoffs for the first time IN 15 years. Game one of their Eastern Conference Semifinals series is scheduled on May 4 at the Air Canada Center, Toronto, Canada.
At the post-game podium, DeRozan smiled and whispered to his daughter Diar, balanced on his lap in a sequined No. 10 jersey and furry black skirt. DeRozan got himself right back into things as he took a dunk directly to the net, giving them 67 which then turned into a 73 by the two-minute mark with another of the same. “I read some of the stuff, not only here but around the country, about how IN was going to win and we weren’t going to get through this, and I loved that because our guys used it as motivation, used it as fuel to fight and to scrap”. Toronto’s Norman Powell (46th) and Miami’s Josh Richardson (40th) have earned the trust of their respective coaching staffs and have broken into the postseason rotation for their teams. Whiteside is tops in the league in points saved per game, at 2.27, per NylonCalculus.com.
He had provided rugged defence on Paul George, the Indiana Pacers star swingman. The Heat drilled the Raptors at home in November, rolling to a 20-point victory.
Toronto pushed the lead up to 16 points early in the fourth quarter before the Pacers climbed within three points with 2:36 to play. But as indicative of this series, the Pacers stormed back to within three points following a jaw dropping Monta Ellis three pointer. Subsequently, fans may be wondering what channel they can catch Game 1 on to get this series started. “That locker room is full of fighters and scrappers and guys that are really getting into it”. “Hopefully Those two young men, they’re not going to forget how to play”.
For one, with the Raptors advancing to the Eastern Conference Semifinals to play the Miami Heat, it meant that former Sacramento Kings forward Jason Thompson will continue his ride during his first playoff experience. A year later, they got swept by the Washington Wizards in four straight games.
Meanwhile, for the Heat, they were nearly eliminated by the Hornets who, after losing two consecutive, won three straight to go up 3-2. Winning a series despite being outscored is an anomaly unlike to be duplicated. “This is just the beginning of something great”.
“We were just going to leave it all out there, whatever we had, from the beginning to the end”, DeRozan said. If Kyle Lowry can be a threat from deep, it would help Toronto’s spacing greatly as it would pull Whiteside away from the rim and help open up the middle. “That’s what he did tonight and that was his goal”.
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In some ways it feels like anything that comes now is gravy on a successful season, but I know I won’t feel that if this goes poorly. I’ve seen it time and time again over the years – it matters. “He emptied the clip, and we won, so that is all that matters”.
