Lowry shines when Heat is on
Toronto guard scores 29 of 33 points in a monster second half to vanquish Miami
MIAMI — Dwyane Wade called them daggers. That’s what they felt like to the Miami Heat.
The sting of the shots Kyle Lowry hit late. The baskets that changed everything for the Raptors and maybe everything in this Eastern Conference playoff round.
The night the post-season changed and came to dancing life for the Toronto Raptors’ best player. He sang. He told jokes. He entertained on the basketball court. He did everything but announce the starting lineup.
This wasn’t just Lowry the all-star. This was Lowry the Great. This was Lowry the No Longer Invisible.
Maybe his greatest night as a professional on a night that mattered so very much.
The series was tied at one game apiece and at 82-82 all in Game 3 with just over two minutes to play at the American Airlines Arena. And it seemed like an old-fashioned fight: In one corner, Lowry, the struggling bulldog, trying to fight his way out of his corner. Trying to find his game, his jump shot, what makes him so special.
In the other corner, Dwyane Wade, the sure-thing Hall of Famer, the MVP of the 2006 NBA Championship series when Lowry was in his final year at Villanova, the beenthere-done-that guard of the Heat.
Both came out punching, jabbing, throwing haymakers, uppercuts, rabbit punches when necessary. “That was funny,” said Lowry. “After I hit the jump shot, I looked up and (Wade) was guarding me. I thought ‘Oh, OK, you can put DWade on me. All right then.’
“Just the fact that you get an opportunity to go against a Hall of Famer. That’s something. At the end of the day, he did it for his team. I did it for our team. It wasn’t individually going at it. You get a chance to play against a Hall of Famer and do that. “We got the win.” It was 82-82 with just over two minutes to play, with the centres from both teams having left for injury, with the Raptors’ large lead gone after Jonas Valanciunas didn’t return. It was 82-82 and Lowry did what he hasn’t been able to do this series, what he wasn’t able to do last year, what he wasn’t able to do the year before. He hit a three that mattered.
Punch: It was 85-82. Then Lowry drove for another basket. Punch: It was 87-83.
Counterpunch: Wade hit a bucket to make it 87-86 Raptors.
Lowry’s last basket of Saturday night made it 89-86. Knockout. Wade brought it back to 89-88. And by then time was running out on the Heat. It became foul time and DeMar DeRozan, who couldn’t hit foul shots in Game 2, hit five of six and the Raptors had a lead.
Wade hit one more shot, his fourth three of the night, to end with 38 points.
Lowry scored 33, with 29 coming in a monster second half.
“Kyle hit some big shots down the stretch,” said Wade, who has seen just about everything before. Only no one had seen this before.
Oh, we’ve seen it in mid-season against Cleveland and on a Tuesday night against Philadelphia or Detroit and we’ve been watching this for all of Lowry’s time in Toronto. Just not in May. Just not at playoff time. Just not when the playoff lights came on: He had to wonder himself when it would happen, if the post-season full of personal disappointments would happen, if he was one of those cursed athletes. His close friend, DeRozan, believed, kept telling him to shoot, kept telling him there would be a night like this.
But until you do it, you don’t know. Until you experience it. On the road. Against Dwyane Wade. Well, believing is nice. Getting it done is something entirely different.
“It was good because we won the game,” said Lowry, only fibbing slightly. It was good they won. But he needed to feel important. He needs to be a difference maker. Lowry knows how long he’s worked to get here, to get to this moment, to have a night like this. He knows better than any of us know how hard this is, how hard this has been on him.
“If all this happened and we didn’t win the game (it would mean less).” It would mean less. It still would have been meaningful.
The Raptors’ best player in this series has been Valanciunas, and now his status is unclear. He may not be able to play. Hassan Whiteside, his counterpart, doesn’t know if he will play. DeRozan had another poor shooting night from the field and the Heat is forcing him to move left, which isn’t his strength.
And so, as Lowry called it, as Wade called, it’s a guards series now. The Raptors have played sound defence in three games holding the Heat to 86, 90 and 91 points in regulation time. That should translate to winning basketball for the Raps.
“It’s time to step up,” said Dwyane Wade. He did. Lowry did. May the best man win.