Big Men or No, Heat-Raptors Will Be Decided by Dwyane Wade vs. Kyle Lowry
MIAMI — Injuries flipped Game 3 of the Toronto Raptors-Miami Heat second-round series on its head.
Superstar talents returned it to a predictable place.
The first 28-odd minutes were defined by massive maladies, as Hassan Whiteside (right knee) exited in the second quarter and Jonas Valanciunas (right ankle) departed during the next.
So the game's final stretch belonged to dueling All-Stars Kyle Lowry and Dwyane Wade.
"Wade was himself, Kyle went back to being himself," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said after his team's 95-91 win. "Both guys were putting their stamp onto the game. Both of them are great players. ... Luckily for us, our guy came out ahead."
It was an overdue return for Lowry. He entered the game with ghastly postseason shooting marks (30.8 from the field, 15.8 outside) and managed just four points on 2-of-6 shooting during 19 first-half minutes. But after striping a pair of triples to start the third, the 6'0" bulldog point guard finally got his swagger back.
"I felt like it was just a matter of time for me to shoot the shots for them to go down," he said.
Once they started falling, they never stopped. Lowry scored 29 of Toronto's 46 second-half points and finished with 33 points on only 19 shots. He hit a perfect five of five from distance after intermission and harassed Heat point guard Goran Dragic throughout the contest (12 points on 14 shots, five turnovers against one assist)
The fact Dragic was still the Heat's second-best scorer shows how easily this could have gotten out of hand for the team. Wade wouldn't let that happen.
The 34-year-old erupted for a season-high 38 points—his most in a playoff game since 2012—on 13-of-25 shooting, adding eight rebounds and four assists to his stat line. He also drilled four of six from distance, after entering the playoffs having not made a three-pointer since mid-December.
"The rim was looking like an ocean to him," Raptors guard Cory Joseph said. "He was hitting everything. He was making tough shots, one after another."
And when Wade's squad desperately needed a lift, he energized the group with vintage highlights.
As thrilling as the back-and-forth between Lowry and Wade was to watch, it was equally revealing. With question marks surrounding both bigs, this series likely now belongs to the guards.
Whiteside's loss stings for multiple reasons, not the least of which is his unique skill set. The Heat have other big bodies they can plug in, but there isn't another 7'0", 265-pounder with explosive athleticism and pillow-soft hands waiting on the sidelines.
Exacerbating that issue is the fact the Heat are already without a dominant big man—and arguably their best overall player—Chris Bosh. The 11-time All-Star has been sidelined by blood clots for the second consecutive season and officially ruled out earlier in the week.
Miami somehow found a way to adapt without Bosh. But if Whiteside is looking at a lengthy absence—Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called it "a twisted knee" and said there will be an MRI on Sunday—this will test the full limits of this club's resiliency.
"We are without one of the best players to ever play the game in Chris Bosh, and now we don't know about Hassan, who is a big part of what we do," Wade said. "That doesn't mean we still don't have a series to play."
Plus, the Raptors have their own injury issue to handle.
Valanciunas' ankle doesn't seem as concerning as Whiteside's knee. Casey clarified there is "nothing broken, nothing structural" but still pegged the center's status as "day-to-day."
Valanciunas had been Toronto's most reliable offensive source through the first two games of this series. He eased back into that role early during Game 3, scoring the Raptors' first six points and then notching 16 points and 12 rebounds in 22 minutes of work.
"JV has been holding it down all playoffs," Lowry said. "I think with DeMar [DeRozan] and I, we just said we have to be more aggressive. Whiteside is out; JV is out. This is a guard game today, so the floor opened up a lot more."
If Valanciunas and/or Whiteside can return for Monday's Game 4, there's still a chance they could be less than 100 percent. And that puts more of a burden on both Lowry and Wade, provided it's even possible to carry more weight in the wide-open than they did late.
| Kyle Lowry | 29 | 9-13 | 5-5 |
| Rest of Raptors | 17 | 4-21 | 0-5 |
| Dwyane Wade | 29 | 9-16 | 3-5 |
| Rest of Heat | 22 | 6-22 | 0-6 |
Neither can rely on getting consistent help, especially with the injury bug having reared its head. When Whiteside is right, he's the Heat's best non-Wade option. With the way DeRozan has struggled (19 points on 6-of-17 shooting in Game 3), Valanciunas looks like he belongs in the No. 2 offensive slot.
Both teams lost a lot even as their stars shined bright. They also discovered how critical those late-game heroics will be moving forward. If each side is down a big and each has a superstar scorer with takeover ability, it isn't hard to see where this series is headed.
"If you've got a great player like Dwyane Wade, I'm not too smart, but I'm gonna get the ball to him pretty much every time if he's got it going like that," Casey said. "I'm not too smart, but I got the ball to Kyle Lowry quite a bit."
All quotes obtained firsthand. Statistics used courtesy of NBA.com.
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