DeRozan’s hot streak stifles Heat
Puts up 33 points, four threes while Lowry adds 15 as Raptors stretch win streak to seven
DeMar DeRozan is under no illusion about what he is as a basketball player and where his strengths lie — he is a driver and a mid-range shooter and one of the best in the NBA at drawing contact and creating fouls.
But it is to dream right? And after one of the best long-distance shooting nights of his career, why wouldn’t he?
“I’m not going to come out like a Ray Allen or nothing,” DeRozan said after he dropped four three-pointers on the Miami Heat to help power the Toronto Raptors to a 101-81 victory at the ACC.
“But I mean if it’s there, I’m going to shoot it.”
It should come as no surprise that DeRozan’s long-range shooting (4-for-5 from three on Friday night, 11-for-27 in January) has been torrid of late.
He’s on an unprecedented scoring spree — he lit up the under-manned Heat for 33 points, which marked his third game of 30 or more in a row.
“The game is coming slow to him, he’s now shooting the three-ball and teams are going to have to run out to him and he’s got the opportunity to get to the paint,” coach Dwane Casey said. “That’s something that he’s added . . . it’s another evolution to his game.”
DeRozan is likely to be named to his second all-star team when coach voting for Eastern Conference backups is announced Thursday.
And he went all “aw shucks” when discussing his scorching play.
“I honestly don’t even think about it,” he said.
“Just go out there play, my teammates help me out. It’s not like I’m going out there telling myself I’m going to get 30, 40 . . . I just try to go out there and win.”
Backed by DeRozan’s offence and with a defence that limited any sustained damage from the Heat, Toronto did what it’s seldom done: Get a weakened opponent down and stomp on it.
Miami was missing three of its five starters — Hassan Whiteside (hip), Goran Dragic (calf ) and Luol Deng (eye) — and Dwyane Wade played despite being ruled out earlier in the day because of a sore shoulder.
It was a perfect opportunity for the Raptors to have a somewhat easier night than normal and they took advantage of it, leading wire-to-wire and not having to stretch out any key players.
“I thought we got sluggish there for a couple of stretches, one in the first half and one in the second half,” Casey said.
“We were kind of running in mud, not playing with force and had some turnovers and loose possessions. We’ve got to clean them up but for the most part, we took care of our business.”
Kyle Lowry, a newly minted all-star starter, had 15 points while Terrence Ross continued solid play off the bench with 13.
Every time Miami attempted to make a run, the Raptors answered it. The Heat got within 10 early in the fourth quarter and Toronto responded. Miami drew within nine with about four minutes to go and Toronto responded once again; a Lowry three-point play with about 21⁄ minutes to go restored a15-point
2 lead to seal the victory.
Chris Bosh led the Heat with 26 points and Wade added 22 but Miami simply didn’t have the manpower to stay with Toronto all night.
“We did a solid job,” DeRozan said. “We had a couple of mistakes, a couple of letdowns, a couple of possessions where we didn’t do our principles but it’s a part of the game we can get better at it.”
Toronto has now won four of seven games on a season-longest homestand, creating some separation between it and a handful of other Eastern Conference playoff teams.