Raptors get even in overtime
Bird decides against bringing back Vogel as Pacers coach
DeMarre Carroll scored 21 points, Jonas Valanciunas had 15 points and 12 rebounds, and the Toronto Raptors beat the Miami Heat 96-92 in overtime on Thursday night to even the Eastern Conference semifinals at one game apiece.
Valanciunas had 11 points and seven rebounds in the fourth quarter and overtime as the host Raptors avoided losing consecutive games for the first time this postseason.
Toronto made just 42 percent of its shots compared to Miami’s 49.4 percent, but the Raptors survived.
“There’s a lot of different ways to win a game,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “Fortunately our guys found a way.”
DeMar DeRozan scored 20 points, Kyle Lowry had 18 and Terrence Ross 10 for Toronto, which battled back late in the fourth quarter to force the second overtime of the series, then shut the Heat down to start it.
Goran Dragic scored 20, and Wade and Joe Johnson each had 17 for the Heat. Game 3 is Saturday in Miami.
The Heat led 77-70 midway through the fourth, but back-to-back baskets by Valanciunas shaved the gap to 80-78 with 3:18 remaining. Ross tied it with a jumper at 2:01.
DeRozan missed a pair of free throws with 1:22 re- maining, but Valanciunas grabbed the rebound on the second and tipped it home to give Toronto an 82-80 lead.
After a missed shot by Wade, Lowry hit a pull-up jumper with 45 seconds left, giving the Raptors a four-point cushion. Wade cut it to one with a 3 but Lowry replied with another jumper with 14.9 seconds to go, putting Toronto up 8683. After a Miami timeout, Dragic tied with a 3 with 10.5 seconds left.
Pacers: Team president Larry Bird said that the team will not renew coach Frank Vogel’s contract for next season, cutting ties with a respected name in the coaching ranks. “Sometimes my job really sucks and this is one of them,” a somber-sounding Bird told reporters.
Vogel was 250-181 in five and a half seasons with the Pacers. He led the team to the playoffs five times, including a first-round loss to the Toronto Raptors this season. The Pacers became known as one of the better defensive teams in the NBA under Vogel’s leadership, but Bird said he started thinking it might be time for a change around the All-Star break in an effort to get a coach to breathe life into a sometimes-stagnant offense. Vogel led Indiana to the Eastern Conference finals in 2012-13 and 201314.
Among the names already linked to the job are former Pacers assistant and ex-Denver head coach Brian Shaw, current Pacers assistant and former NBA head coach Nate McMillan, and former Pacers player and Golden State coach Mark Jackson. Former Houston coach Kevin McHale, Bird’s former teammate on the Celtics teams of the 1980s, will not be in the mix.
“I would not do that to Kevin, have him work for me. I respect him too much,” Bird said. “I would love for him to be the coach, but it ain’t going to happen because I respect him too much.”
Wizards: All- Star guard John Wall underwent left knee surgery and is expected to be ready for the start of next season, the team announced.