RAPTORS VS. HEAT Dragic slays Raptors in Game 6 gem
Heat point guard goes off for 30 as Miami triumphs in forcing Game 7 Sunday
MIAMI— All season the Toronto Raptors have talked about their resiliency, the blossoming ability to fight through hard times so that those moments didn’t become horrible, to not get too high or too low.
Now comes the time when that will be put to the greatest test. Game 7. At home. Again. With Goran Dragic exploding for 30 points, the Miami Heat did what they had to do Friday night, salvaging their season with a 103-91 victory at American Airlines Arena that sets up a win-or-go-home Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference semifinal.
Sunday’s 3:30 p.m. contest will be the second Game 7 for each team; Toronto beat Indiana and Miami eliminated Charlotte in the first round. The winner Sunday opens the conference final Tuesday in Cleveland.
Dragic’s offensive explosion, and the ease with which he got to the rim in a 19-point first half, was astonishing. It was the difference because the Raptors got another great offensive game from their backcourt.
Kyle Lowry, playing the last five minutes of the game with five personal fouls, had 36 points and DeMar DeRozan had 23 but it just wasn’t enough.
Dwyane Wade did the predictable and awoke from three bad quarters to finish with 22 points but the Dragic onslaught was too much for the Raptors. The deciding game Sunday will be another test in the progression of the Raptors as a team. Coach Dwane Casey has been steadfast in contending success does not come without pain or without setbacks on the way, it cannot be rushed and it cannot be expected.
“I think everyone got ahead of ourselves expecting it, but I thought our guys grew at the right rate as the season went on,” Casey said Friday morning. “We are where we are supposed to be right now.”
Both injured forwards — Toronto’s DeMarre Carroll and Miami’s Luol Deng — played but neither had a huge impact on the game.
Neither did a Miami lineup move that saw the Heat start basically two guards and three small forwards, inserting Justise Winslow into the game in the role that had been filled by Hassan Whiteside and then Amar’e Stoudemire.
But being small wasn’t a factor in turning the game into the quickest from start to finish of the series.
That was primarily on Dragic, who was in attack mode from the opening tip. It was the first time either team had eclipsed100 points in a game and the Heat shot 48 per cent from the floor.
Winslow went from being benched in Game 3 to making the Game 6 start as the Heat tried to figure out something to make up for the absence of Whiteside.
It created some unique lineups — the Heat played ostensibly three point guards in Dragic, Tyler Johnson and Josh Richardson at points — that turned the game into a higher tempo one than many of the previous five.
It didn’t determine the outcome — Winslow had no real impact on the game, the Raptors didn’t dominate inside against an all-switching Miami defence — but it was one of those wrinkles that teams try in dire circumstances.
But when it comes down to it, it’s execution that wins.
“We know what they will do, they know what we are going to do,” Casey said before the game. “The adjustments we make, we have to make sure we execute those and I’m sure they will make adjustments and we’ll have to adjust pretty quick to those once the game starts.”
The Heat, who has slogged through the first five games with an offence going in slow motion, did get to the pace they wanted in taking early control.