Eddie House fills in Lebron James’ shoes as the Miami Heat beat the Toronto Raptors 97 -79
Eddie House poured in a career-high 35 point as the Miami heat ended the season with a 97 – 79 victory over the Toronto Raptors in Toronto on Wednesday. House scored 18 points in the first quarter to lead Miami’s second string team over a depleted Toronto
Raptors.
“It was good to get out there and play, just to play again and have a rhythm,” House said. “There are nights you can't do that. It felt good to be out there.”
Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra rested Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on Wednesday night to keep them fresh for their first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia 76ers starting from Saturday.
Meanwhile Toronto was also shorthanded as they played the whole night with just eight players. Toronto was missing key-men Leandro Barbosa, Andrea Bargnani, starting point-guard Jose Calderon in addition to Sonny Weems, Amir Johnson and Reggie Evans.
The replacements handled business for the Heat in their last game, with Eddie House doing his best impersonation of Lebron James as he led Miami with a career-high 35 points, going 7-for-13 from beyond the arc. Juwan Howard chipped in with 18 points off
the bench while Jamaal Magloire proved to be a beast on the boards as he snared 19 rebounds.
Coach Spoelstra was delighted with the way House played, he said, “Eddie was on fire, no question about it. He got into that rhythm there in the second quarter and we kept on finding him the ball where he was open, and he's ignitable.”
Point-guard Mario Chalmers orchestrated the Heat offence like clockwork as he posted 13 assists on the night to end the season on a high-note for Miami.
Miami shot 50 percent from beyond the arc compared to just 1-of-8 for the Raptors. House and lanky sharp-shooter James Jones were hot from long range as they kept drilling in shot after shot.
After Toronto led 17 – 15 at the 3:40 mark in the first quarter, Eddie House heated up and scored 14 straight points during a 14 – 1 run to put the Heat up comfortably heading into the second.
The Raptors outscored Miami in the second quarter 31 – 21 to take a slight one point lead into the halftime break. Jerryd Bayless added nine points in the quarter to power the Toronto surge in the second period.
After a close third quarter, Miami turned up the heat in the final period to outplay the Raptors and seal the victory.
Bayless top-scored with a 21-point contribution for the short-handed Raptors, while Demar DeRozan chipped in with 18 points.
Erik Spoelstra was looking forward to hosting the 76ers in opening game of their first-round playoff series on Saturday, but admitted the opposition would not be easy to snub.
“They've gotten better every single month,” Spoelstra said, “That's the test of a well-coached team and also a team of players who are together. Every month they've improved defensively. They're one of the better defensive teams in the league now and offensively
they're efficient.”
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