Review: Miami Heat down the Toronto Raptors
The Miami Heat defeated the Toronto Raptors 100-85, making this their 10 straight win versus the Raptors as an ex-Raptor helped bury his former team. The Toronto crowd greeted him with boos and he responded appropriately. Chris Bosh scored 13 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter against his former employers, the Raptors. Bosh shot 12 of 19 from the field and had 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
“I was hearing a lot from the fans,” said Bosh, who abandoned the sinking ship of the Raptors for greener pastures in Miami in the 2010 off-season. “I thank them for continuing to stay on me and call me names and stuff because that helped my focus a lot. I was like ‘I need to get in this to shut them up.” He did play well but it actually led a fan to comment, “Why couldn’t you play like that when you were in Toronto?” Bosh said later, “They pay their money, they can do what they want. I just hope they remember the good times.”
The Raptors led in the third quarter before it slipped away from them. And it did because of their poor shooting, and was snatched away because of the above 50% shooting by the Heat. Toronto shot just 37% on the night to the Heat’s 53%. LeBron James added 30 on 10 of 16 shooting, with 8 rebounds and 7 assists.
“In terms of a guy dominating a game in the last three or four minutes when he’s trying to be a facilitator, speaks to how competitive he is and what kind of winning plays he can make in the post game.” said Heat coach Spoelstra on James’ strong and unselfish play down the stretch. He got to the line 12 times and converted on 9 of those attempts.
LeBron seems to like playing against the Raptors. He scored his career high 56 points vs the Raptors in 2005, and four of his 34 regular season double doubles have come versus the Raptors. Dwyane Wade shone too, with 23 points on 10-18 shooting and added 5 rebounds and 5 assists. His spacing enabled James to go off for 30. Wade came in averaging 31.5 points in his last 11 games versus the Raptors. This was the 62nd game in which Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade combined for 70 points.
“I wouldn’t say I’m 100 per cent comfortable,” said Rudy Gay, two days after joining his new team. “I’m still feeling my way out there. I still think this is a game we could’ve won. We still have a couple things to iron out in practice.” The new Raptor Rudy Gay gave his all to will his team to victory, but the big three were just too much. Rudy finished with 29 points on 11 of 23 shooting.
But he cooled off in the second half, as 20 of his points came in the first. “They’re the defending champs,” Gay said. “I say for three-and-a-half quarters we played them as well as anybody in the league. The fact that we haven’t been together for a long time, they exposed that in the fourth and a little bit in the third.”
There have been qualms about how well the duo of DeMar Derozen and Rudy Gay will gel together. They both scored above 25 today. DeRozen had 27 on 6 of 17 shooting but he was perfect from the line on his 14 attempts. The Raptors bench was of no help, as they shot just 4 of 18. It is hard to keep momentum going if your bench doesn’t step up, and this was one of the main reasons for their collapse.
A lot of credit goes to the stellar defense by the Miami Heat, who are holding opponents to 43.9 percent shooting this season. “Everyone did a good job protecting the rim, protecting the paint,” said Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra. “It was more a defensive win but we had some clutch plays down near the end,” Spoelstra said. “It’s good to get this one to close out this road trip and so we can end this evening, enjoy the [Super Bowl].”
The Heat were coming off to a 102-89 loss to the Indiana Pacers and they came out ready to clear the slate. “They’re going to be like a bunch of wet hens,” Raptors coach Casey said before the game. “They’re going to be really, really ready to play.” Ready they were as they closed this one out. The Raptors face the Boston Celtics next, who just beat the Clippers.
Here are the highlights from this game: