Miami Evens Series at 2-2 Heading Back to Toronto

Dwyane Wade showed up in a big way during Game 4, but a loss in Game 5 would put Miami on the brink of elimination.

Game 3

Miami’s Dwyane Wade ruffled feathers when he took jumpers during the Canadian anthem. Kyle Lowry broke his streak of disgusting shooting efforts, scoring 33 points on 11-of-19 from the field. However, the center story on this night was series-ending injuries. First it was the Heat’s Hassan Whiteside. Then later it was the Raptors’ Jonas Valanciunas. It was like watching some sick, tasteless joke brought on by the basketball gods in a second round matchup that has already struggled to keep its viewers from napping until the late-game. Wade scored 38 points on 13-of-25 from the field, including four-of-six from beyond the arc and eight-for-eight at the stripe. Meanwhile, Goran Dragic was benched after 29 minutes of futility (12 points on 14 shots, one assist to five turnovers, five fouls). Udonis Haslem helped keep the contest in reach after Whiteside went down, but as has been the case during most of Miami’s postseason losses, the team shot poorly.

Game 4

Kyle Lowry fell right back into his late-season and playoff shooting slump, and quite frankly, it’s amazing that Toronto even reached overtime. The Raptors shot 39.3 percent from the field (to Miami’s 45 percent) and made six less free-throws, which seems like a recipe for a blowout loss. However, they hung tight thanks in large part to the play of Bismack Biyombo—who was a force inside the paint. He had a Plus/Minus +11 in 31 minutes while Patrick Patterson was +8 in 41 minutes. No other Raptor posted a positive Plus/Minus in Game 4. Dwyane Wade provided enough scoring and Luol Deng did enough little things to help Miami escape South Beach tied at 2-2. After receiving a DNP-CD in Game 3, Justice Winslow was extremely solid off the bench (+7 in 31 minutes) as well.

Looking Ahead

Miami returned for two home games hoping to take a commanding 3-1 series lead heading back to Toronto—but it was not to be. Expect Dwane Casey to give Biyombo and Patterson a lot of tick in Game 5 after both were used sparingly through the first three contests. DeMarre Carroll played 38 minutes in Game 4, and he figures to play heavy minutes also. The question for the Raptors becomes how long do you ride with DeMar DeRozan when he is dangerously close to shooting them out of the series. Same goes for Lowry. If either of those guys isn’t feeling it on Wednesday, will Corey Joseph or rookie Norman Powell be called upon. What if Terrence Ross is making stuff happen?

For Miami, Dragic must go into dragon mode and Wade will need to keep playing at a high level. He has been truly exceptional in the last couple games, but the Heat can’t bank on the Raptors shooting such a low percentage for the remainder of this series. Erik Spoelstra doesn’t have any easy answers at center minus Whiteside and Chris Bosh, so Haslem, Amar’e Stoudemire, and Josh McRoberts will probably need to man the middle for short spurts each. Miami came back from 3-2 down against Charlotte in round one, but do they really want to put themselves in that same position? As old as much of this roster is, Miami may not have enough gas in the tank for the Eastern Conference Finals if it takes them seven games to advance. Beating Cleveland is going to be nearly unfathomable for either of these teams, but the only way the Heat can enter that matchup confidently is by closing this series out in six games behind inspired play from Dragic and Wade. Those two need to prove they can both go off on the same night in order for this team to compete with the heavyweights, otherwise Miami will suffer the same sweeping fate as Detroit and Atlanta should they survive round two.