Raptors edge Heat, take 3-2 lead in East
TORONTO – DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry went from invisible to indispensable for the Toronto Raptors.
DeRozan matched a playoff high with 34 points, Lowry had 25 and the Raptors beat the Miami Heat 9991 to take a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“We have faith in those guys, they’ve carried us the entire season,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “Not one time did we doubt their ability to score.”
Bismack Biyombo had 10 points for the Raptors, who never trailed. Toronto can clinch its first conference finals berth with a win in Game 6 in Miami on Friday.
Lowry and DeRozan made six of 28 shot attempts and scored 19 total points as Toronto lost 94-87 in overtime in Game 4.
In Game 5, Toronto’s All-Stars tallied 19 points in the first quarter alone. They shot 20 for 47 overall and scored 59 points, their highest total this postseason, even with DeRozan battling a bad thumb that took another hard hit in the second half.
“We just tried to go out there and be aggressive,” DeRozan said. “We’ve been aggressive these past two series and shots just weren’t dropping for us. We just told ourselves we were going to continue to be aggressive and it was going to come back around.”
It was DeRozan’s franchise-best 13th 20-point game in the playoffs and his sixth this postseason.
“He got to the free throw line and got in a rhythm early,” Miami’s Dwyane Wade said. “He was locked in all night.”
Wade scored 20 for Miami. Goran Dragic and Josh Richardson each had 13.
Toronto led by 20 in the first half and by 13 to start the fourth quarter before its lead shrunk to 88-87 when Wade made a pair of free throws with 1:54 left.
“That’s when I thought ‘OK, this is our time to make that move,’” Wade said. “Unfortunately, from there we couldn’t.”
DeRozan made a pair of free throws and, after a Miami turnover, Lowry drained a long 3-pointer to put Toronto up 93-87 with 52 seconds left.
“I missed four or five easy shots throughout the fourth quarter,” Lowry said. “I got an opportunity to make up for it.”
DeRozan sealed it by going 4 for 4 on his free throws in the final 21 seconds.