MIAMI VS. TORONTO
After letting lead slip away, Miami wins in overtime in opener
Heat’s “mental toughness” helps nab 102-96 OT win.
TORONTO — How important was this opening statement to the Miami Heat? Apparently so significant that they essentially won it twice.
Forced to overtime after a10-point fourth-quarter lead melted away on a 39-foot Kyle Lowry 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer, the Heat then stepped up in overtime to defeat the Toronto Raptors102-96Tuesday night at Air Canada Centre in Game 1 of this best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series.
“It was good to see us overcome it,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra understated.
This wasn’t quite the emphatic opening-game statement made in the previous round against the Charlotte Hornets.
But it might prove far more significant. Because home-court advantage now belongs to the Heat.
“The overtime,” Spoelstra said, “was probably the most mental toughness we’ve shown.” Staggered. Stunned. But not too deflated. “You can’t just get to this point and not show some mental toughness,” Spoelstra said.
Surviving early turnover issues and that meltdown at the end of the fourth quarter, the Heat
finished in overtime what they couldn’t in regulation.
Somehow regrouping after Lowry seemingly ripped their hearts out.
“From that point on,” Spoelstra said, “I was extremely proud of the group.”
Point guard Goran Dragic led the Heat with a playoffhigh 26 points, supported by 24 points from guard Dwyane Wade, with center Hassan Whiteside closing with nine points and 17 rebounds.
Wade again played as closer for the Heat, just as he did in the crucial Game 6 road victory in Charlotte.
“He willed a bunch of plays on both ends,” Spoelstra said.
Guard DeMar DeRozan scored 22 for Toronto, with Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas closing with 24 points and 14 rebounds, on a night Lowry shot 3 of 13.
The Raptors forced overtime on a Lowry’s he ave after White side made only one of two free throws at the end of regulation. Lowry had been 2 of 11 from the field to that stage, 0 for 5 on 3-pointers.
But that’ s when the Heat’ s Joe Johnson, Luol Deng and Wade, with two baskets, opened the scoring in overtime for a 98-90Heat lead.
As with the end of the fourth quarter, it still grew harrowing for the Heat.
The Raptors got their first points of overtime on a DeRozan pull-up jumper with 1:14 to play in overtime to draw within 98-92.
Wade then saw his baseline jumper blocked, but came up with a steal for what would prove to be a scoreless Heat possession.
That led to a Raptors timeout down 98-92 with 30.1seconds to play and then a DeMarre Carroll layup off a perfectly scripted play to draw Toronto within 98-94 with 26.9 seconds left.
Slow to foul after a pair of Heat timeouts, the Raptors fouled Heat guard Josh Richardson with 15.7 seconds left.
Richardson made only the first of his two foul shots fora 99-94 Heat lead. The Raptors quickly went to Valanciunas for a dunk with 10.6 seconds to play to trim their deficit to 99-96.
Again another wild inbounding scramble followed for the Heat. The officials first ruled the ball out of bounds off the Heat, then changed that call, only to go to replay, with the Raptors given possession.
Toronto then was unable to get the ball to DeRozan, with Wade coming up with the steal and converting a 3-point play. Finally, game. “All these moments,” Spoelstra said of a season of adversity, and, this time, a night of adversity, “we’re really grown from.”
As for the end of the fourth quarter? A thrill ride only with a thrilling finish for the Raptors.
With 1:03 to playin regulation, Raptors guard Cory Joseph scored on a layup for Toronto to close the deficit to 83-81.
That’s when Dragic appeared to step up with a dagger, his 3-pointer from the left corner off a Wade assist putting the Heat up 86-81 with 40.6 seconds to play in regulation.
A Wade block on the other end, and a Johnson free throw gave the Heat an 87-81 lead in the fourth. Seeming over? Not quite. Because then it got odd, with Wade called for the Heat’s 17th turnover on a travel on an inbounds play. Joseph cashed on that error with a layup with 20.9 seconds to play in regulation to trim the Heat’s lead to 87-83.
Fouled with 19.2 seconds to play in regulation, Richardson then made both foul shots for an 89-83 lead.
Terrence Ross then converted a 3-pointer with 6.5 seconds to play to bring Toronto within 89-86.
And then, disaster for the Heat, with the Heat throwing away the inbounds pass, leading to a foul on Richardson with 4.1 seconds to play in regulation. Ross then made only the first of his two foul shots, with Whiteside rebounding the second.
That put Whiteside at the line with 3.3 seconds to play in the fourth and the Heat up 89-87. At 2 of 4 from the line to that stage, Whiteside missed the first and made the second.
Without a time a timeout, Lowry launched his heave that was true and forced overtime.
The Heat went into the fourth quarter up 68-63, with Dragic up to 18 points by that stage and Wade at 13 to that point.
When Dragic drained a 3-pointer with1:34 left in the third period, it put the Heat up 68-61, the largest lead of the night for either team to that point. Dragic had a chance for a four-point play, but missed the ensuing free throw.
Wade opened the scoring in the third period with a 3-point, only his third conversion since December, following up on his two late critical 3-pointers in Game 6 of the first round.
Despite committing 11 first-half turnovers, the Heat were able to close the first half within 43-41, in part because of a 25-16 rebounding advantage over the first two periods.
After a missed dunk in transition by Deng on one end and a DeMarre Carroll 3-pointer on the other, the Raptors pushed to a sixpoint lead late in the second period, the largest of the game to that stage.
The Heat actually blew three dunk opportunities in the first half, with Whiteside late on one attempt at the 24-second clock, Gerald Green failing to get rim on another, and then Deng’s miscue.
The Heat went 10 deep in the first half, with Udonis even getting four minutes in the second quarter.
The Heat had a scare early, when Whiteside slipped in the paint below the Heat basket, took a hard fall, was helped to the Heat bench and then to the locker room before returning to the bench by the end of the first period. He was diagnosed with a strained knee and returned after the first timeout of the second period.
That had Amar’e Stoudemire entering as the first big man off the bench, a role he held at the start of the previous round against the Charlotte Hornets, before Josh McRoberts was moved into that assignment.
Green remained in the Heat’s rotation, again playing as the first wing off the bench, ahead of Justise Winslow, amid the Heat’s offensive struggles.