Once again the Raptors hung around with the mighty Heat for much of a ballgame, but once again, Miami showed why it’s the class of the East down the stretch.
That LeBron guy had a lot to do with it. Despite a sore back, LeBron James reminded everyone why Kevin Durant won’t be the unanimous MVP, despite his absolutely insane, record-setting season. Other than forcing LeBron into six turnovers, Toronto had no answers. From Joey Graham and Jamario Moon, to a mild version of Shawn Marion, to Landry Fields and Terrence Ross, like the rest of the league, the Raptors have never had a player capable of slowing down the four-time MVP.
- Of course Kyle Lowry’s injury was the main story from Monday night. Don’t expect much of an update from the tight-lipped Toronto medical staff for a while. Going by past history, nothing will be revealed until just before tip-off against Houston on Wednesday. The early aftermath didn’t look good, with Lowry riding on a cart from the team’s locker room in Miami to the bus. He had to get up to go through TSA pre-screening and my colleague Mike Ganter said he did so while limping noticeably. Running into the freight train that is James knee-first rarely will leave somebody unscathed. But X-rays were negative and as long as their isn’t any significant damage, Lowry should be back before too long.
- But wouldn’t it be so Raptors if a season that has been such a surprising success took an awful turn? Let’s all hope this isn’t another Jorge Garbajosa season-destroying situation.
- Toronto’s still without a win against the Heat since the Big Three was formed. Even though Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen didn’t play in this one.
- The game was lost in the third quarter, when the Raptors kept launching long jumpers (even though Miami didn’t have an inside defensive presence besides Chris Andersen and even though Jonas Valanciunas had been going off in the first half – he took one shot in the third, two in the fourth, a continuing problem). Most of those shots went clankety-clank and, because Miami wasn’t playing too well at the other end, a huge opportunity was wasted. Toronto went nearly four minutes without a basket to start the quarter, failing to get one until Lowry went inside. Two minutes later, the Raptors finally scored again (a Valanciunas dunk). Throughout the quarter, Toronto consistently went a minute or two between scores.
- Would have liked to see Toronto exploit its size advantage more with Valanciunas, or even some Tyler Hansbrough, who could have gotten Miami into some foul trouble because of his activity rate and ability to draw fouls. Dwane Casey opted to go smaller. With Patrick Patterson back, the big man rotation will get even more interesting. Due to foul trouble and because it was a back-to-back, Amir Johnson played only 24 minutes.
- Not getting into the foul disparity other than to say it was a bit ironic LeBron shot more free throws than the entire Raptors team a day after DeRozan shot more than the Magic did.