DeMar DeRozan scored 34 points and the Toronto Raptors defeated the Miami Heat 99-91 on Wednesday to take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
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“He wasn’t hesitating, he was decisive, and that’s the way he needs to play”, said Casey of DeRozan.
You can say this again about the Heat: They’re tough. Jonas Valanciunas had become a roaring presence in these playoffs, but you can’t expect him to come back, not with the notion of a Grade 3 ankle sprain in the air. But it’s going to come back. They’re our guys. We believe in them. “We should be proud of the way we pushed them”, Lillard said. “Not one time did we doubt their ability to score”.
The Raptors surged at the start and led by as many as 16 points in the first quarter and were ahead by 20 in the second quarter before the Heat began chipping away at their deficit.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Deng will have an MRI when the Heat return to Miami, but refused to blame injuries for the Heat’s struggles.
What is even more worrying for Toronto is they both tried to shoot their way out of the rut, instead of passing and looking for teammates in better positions. He took the ball into the paint, shot with his momentum going towards the basket, generated contact and got to the line. We weren’t able to get over that hump. “This is what we’re in this business for, is this time of the year”.
DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry followed up one of their worst games with one of their best.
DeRozan then made two free-throw tries and, after a Miami turnover, Lowry drained a long three-pointer to put Toronto up 93-87 with 52 seconds left.
Wade drew fire after continuing his pre-game shooting routine as “O Canada” played prior to Game 3 in Miami on Saturday. Richardson finally came on in the fourth quarter, and Miami can help itself by staying smaller for much of Game 6. “They were going to get going at some point”. “He was locked in all night”.
Lowry had been doing other things even though his shots had not been going in earlier in the playoffs.
“That wasn’t what beat us”.
Toronto’s swelled to 20 points in the second quarter, thanks in part to a sequence where center Bismack Biyombo sandwiched a block on Dwyane Wade in between two massive dunks of his own.
The Heat whittled the lead to eight points before DeRozan’s jumper and free throw restored the 13-point lead with 8:33 to play in the fourth quarter.
Terrence Ross and Cory Joseph each scored 14 for Toronto, which shot 39 percent.
Casey had a simple message to DeRozan, specifically: “Nothing wrong with running the floor, getting them in transition, getting the easy buckets, sweat buckets”. There was another lay-in, and then a nice bank shot – he had tallied six points in the first four minutes.
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Despite his uncharacteristically poor play in the post-season, the Raptors remarkably are still within striking distance of their first appearance in the Eastern Conference final. Had officials not missed the call at the 2:17 mark of the fourth quarter on Monday, Dragic likely would have been called for a technical or flagrant foul and possibly ejected from the game. 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. The Raptors said X-rays were negative, but Carroll was taken to hospital afterward for further tests.
