DeRozan, Lowry come up big as Raptors defeat Heat

By Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press

For the first time in perhaps the entire post-season, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan both played like all-stars.

And now the Toronto Raptors are one victory away from the NBA Eastern Conference final.

DeRozan scored 34 points, while Lowry had 25 to lift the Raptors 99-91 over the Heat on Wednesday. They head back to Miami with a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals.

A win in Friday’s Game 6 and the Raptors will play in the Conference finals for the first time in the team’s 21-year history.

Dwyane Wade led Miami with 20.

Bizmack Biyombo added 10 points for the Raptors, who played without defensive specialist DeMarre Carroll for the fourth quarter.

Carroll fell hard on his left wrist, and was helped to the locker-room in considerable pain. X-rays were negative for what the team called a “wrist contusion.”

In what’s turned into a series of attrition, the Raptors are without Jonas Valanciunas for the series (ankle), and DeRozan is battling a thumb injury. The Heat are missing starting centre Hassan Whiteside (knee).

Lowry and DeRozan’s solid shooting sparked an early 20-point Raptors lead, before the Heat cut it to 10 with a 16-2 run that straddled the second and third quarter.

The Raptors headed into the fourth up 75-62, but back-to-back three-pointers from Josh Richardson cut the lead to seven points. DeRozan took a hard hit to his bad thumb, and made a beeline for the locker-room. But he returned with four minutes to play, to a warm ovation, and was huge in his return.

Without Carroll’s defence down the stretch, Wade scored Miami’s final eight points, and cut the Raptors’ lead to one point with two minutes to play.

But DeRozan scored 13 of the Raptors’ fourth-quarter points, while Lowry had seven, including a three-point dagger with 53 seconds left that he followed up with another long jumper that had the Air Canada Centre crowd roaring.

Derozan’s final two free throws with nine seconds left were just icing by that point.

The raucous ACC crowd included Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament, NFL superstar Terrell Owens and Montreal Canadiens’ P.K. Subban – who has become a regular fixture at Raptors games in the post-season.

The backdrop of black and white T-shirts spelled “YYZ” – both a city nickname and its airport code.

Wade, who sparked outrage on social media when he took shots during “O Canada” in Game 3, was loudly booed every time he handled the ball.

The Cleveland Cavaliers await the series winner after sweeping the Atlanta Hawks.

The Raptors raced out to a 16-points before the game was 10 minutes old. DeRozan and Lowry combined for 19 first-quarter points and the Raptors led 28-18 heading into the second.

Lowry’s reverse layup put Toronto up by 20 points just three-and-a-half minutes before halftime, but with Lowry on the bench for a breather, the Heat ended the quarter on a 10-0 run, cutting the Raptors’ lead to 55-45 at halftime.

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