Miami Heat force game seven with victory over Toronto Raptors

Game 1 would have took place on Sunday – the same day Jonas Valanciunas has been more or less declared unlikely available for.

A chance to be a hero. Is Bebe and Thompson even in the discussion anymore? No one is conditioned to think that way. Game 7. A 2[-seed] versus 3[-seed].

This isn’t one game to win it all for the Toronto Raptors but it certainly seems that way.

Wade said Miami’s 6-9-and-under unit reminded him of how the Heat played a couple of years ago when Shane Battier played as an extremely small center.

The Heat reserves outscored an anemic Raptors bench 24-15. The Raptors, with or without Carroll, have to be ready to take those punches and fight back.

Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper is appealing the one-game suspension he received Wednesday from Major League Baseball for his behavior following an ejection this week.

DeRozan kept the swelling down on his sore thumb by wrapping a shoelace around it. The idea came from Alex McKechnie, Toronto’s director of sports science. The fact that the lineup wasn’t announced until after the anthems told you something was up.

And while Casey has hammered home “defence first” all season long, that message was somehow lost on his team Friday, as the Raptors allowed Goran Dragic to drive to rim at will for 30 points. Games in the 90s can still be entertaining as well, these previous five games have showcased that. That’s all that separates the Heat and the Raptors. Teams that lose Game 5 of a tied best-of-seven go on to ultimately lose the series 82 percent of the time. As a competitor this is what you want.

“There’s been incredible storyline in the series, the highs and lows”. I can make the same argument for the West, even though they have three teams that are clearly above the rest, is there anything else there that impresses you? “Of course, I’m always going to take more on my shoulders”, Wade said. “They’re All-Star players. They’re going to get going at some point”.

DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry went from invisible to indispensable for the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors have shown in these playoffs they are more than willing to let their opponents back into games, and back into a series. Normally that’s a winning formula for the Raptors. This team is clearly broken, having to trot out lineups with Deng and Justise Winslow at center and, like you said, Dorell Wright sounds like a good idea. The bench wasn’t great. My expectations end with a victory over Miami and then figuring it out from there. “He’s playing at a level that he’s pretty much played at his whole career”. He wants to win this damn thing. “We came here to try and win the game”, said Casey.

Toronto has a 3-2 series lead on the Miami Heat and a chance to close the series. They did an excellent job of setting tempo and style of play early.

“Ball containment. Keeping the ball in front of us”.

Lowry and DeRozan combined for 13 points in an ugly first quarter.

And if they don’t, what happens Sunday?

Not that either team will be thinking about it, but there’s some cash at stake for the victor of Game 7. Fabbri put the Blues ahead with a power-play goal 5:23 after the opening faceoff before Stastny and Patrik Berglund scored 94 seconds apart to make it 3-0 late in the first period. The Raptors have had the best three regular-season seasons in franchise history in the last three years. Goran Dragic and Josh Richardson each had 13. Although DeRozan had another strong effort, scoring 12 in the quarter, a 3-pointer from Dwyane Wade at the end of the third extended Miami’s lead to 12 going into the fourth. It was punch-counterpunch with the stars.

The Heat used eight players – the tallest being McRoberts, at 6-foot-10. One game to define a season.