Miami Heat hit hard by injuries in Toronto

Everything seemed to be “feeling good” for DeRozan in the third quarter, when he had 18 points to regain the lead for the Raptors.

Speaking of All-Star winners, DeRozan and fellow backcourt mate Kyle Lowry are in the running to make the Eastern Conference All-Star Game, taking place in Toronto on February 14.

Lee was acquired by the Celtics via trade this offseason because he wanted the opportunity to get playing time in the final year of his contract but it hasn’t worked out that way for him. Toronto (27-15) was riding a six-game win streak.

Toronto Raptors forward Luis Scola (4) tries to drive past Boston… So maybe it’s nearly astounding that the Celtics are still 22-21 overall this season despite their inability to win close games.

Chris Bosh led the Heat with 26 points and Wade added 22 but Miami simply didn’t have the manpower to stay with Toronto all night.

“We’ve got to learn how to keep playing with a lead and just build on it”, Lowry, who had 15 points and six assists in 38 minutes, said. “He put his blood, sweat and tears into this organization and into this franchise and I think the fans, the organization, everyone appreciated what that meant”.

– Amir Johnson didn’t contribute much on the court, but Wednesday was a pretty special night for the Celtics big man. “I thought we were active”. “We made some adjustments tonight and that helped us a little bit….” Lowry and Ross nailed two threes late to stretch the lead nearly out of reach. So it hardly mattered that DeMar DeRozan had erupted for 30 points over the first three quarters or that Jonas Valanciunas couldn’t miss. We haven’t won a championship. “Every quarter is what we’ve got to build towards”.

The Raptors regained the lead, 70-68, on a 3-pointer by Lowry with 7:59 to play in the third quarter.

Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey will tell you that his team tends to take on the personality of the teams they play. “There’s no pressure on one or the other… we can lean on each other, we can lean on everybody so that we can sustain”. “We were just getting beat to balls left and right”, Stevens said. They were making their threes, we were missing our wide-open threes. “I can choose to be frustrated by it or I can choose to make the most out of my time and make a positive contribution and find a way to do it in different ways”.

They were up by 12 when the Bucks went on a 14-4 run, that started with consecutive dunks by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Michael Carter-Williams and ended with a 3-pointer by Khris Middleton, to cut the lead to 100-98 with 6.9 seconds left. Scola led the way with 11 points and DeRozan poured in 10 as the Raptors outshot Boston 20-8 in the paint.

The Miami Heat need a victory after losing six of their last seven games.

DeMar DeRozan had himself a game in a scrappy battle versus the Boston Celtics Wednesday night, full of non-stop highlights.