Miami Heat defeat Toronto Raptors 103-95 (Part–1)
Dwyane Wade scored 28 points to lead the Miami Heat to a 103-95 win over the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night. The Heat weren’t outstanding on the night but managed to do enough to seal the win.
On a night devoid of any on-field fireworks, all the attention was focused on Chris Bosh’s return to his former arena in the Heat’s last game before the All-Star break. Returning to Toronto for the first time since joining LeBron James and Wade at South
Beach, Bosh was jeered and booed from the moment he turned up for the pre-game warm-ups; and Bosh responded in kind.
The 6ft-11in power forward returned to haunt the very building he called his home for seven seasons with a belligerent 25-point blitz and walked off the court, sarcastically blowing kisses to the crowd. He commented on the reception he got after the match.
Bosh said, "You know, we are human. And people that supported you so long, which I don't know every single person, every single Raptors fan, but a town that supported you for so long, just to hear some of that stuff, it makes you upset. I just tried to channel
that into the game and use that anger as aggression and just help my team win."
The game had a simple theme. Miami absorbed the initial Toronto surge, then played some good basketball to take the lead and never looked back, keeping the Raptors at an arms’ length throughout. Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 28 points going 10-of-18 from
the field while LeBron James lit up the Raps with 23 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists; just two assists shy of a triple-double.
Mario Chalmers, who made it to the Miami starting line-up on the night, had one of his finest games in recent memory. The point guard snatched a pair of crucial second-half steals and six assists, including an unselfish back flip dump off pass in the open
court for a James dunk.
The highlight of the night for Miami though was Erick Dampier. In nearly 28 minutes of play, the reserve centre connected on all of his three field goal attempts to score eight points and complemented it with 10 rebounds and two blocks.
The Raptors were led by Andrea Bargnani. The lanky Italian forward scored a season high 37 points, including 17 in the fourth quarter, while DeMar DeRozan chipped in with 24 points. The rest of the Raptors’ cast however, failed to pick up the slack as none
of them managed to top 8 points.
Ed Davis had 8 points and 13 rebounds while swingman Jose Calderon finished with 5 points and 14 assists.
Bargnani, who has slowly been getting back to his best after a wretched injury spell earlier this season, looked impressive on Wednesday night. He started the game with a seven point foray as the Raps sprinted to a 12-6 lead within the first four minutes
of play.
However, Miami’s Big Three soon got into their groove. The trio combined for a 9-0 spurt as the Heat started to stamp their authority on the game. Bargnani and DeRozan though kept Toronto in the game as the teams headed into the second quarter with Miami
leading by 29-27.
Toronto did well to keep the upbeat Miami offence under wraps in the second quarter as well. Not only did the Raptors succeed in restricting the Heat from having one of their conventional scoring outbursts, they went toe to toe with the men from South Beach,
contesting their jumpers and three pointers with an intensity that has been missing in their ranks this season.
The Raptors though never managed to sneak ahead of the Heat. The closest they got to Miami was nearly three minutes before the half time break when Bargnani pulled off a reverse slam dunk to make it 42-43.
However, the Heat outscored Toronto 7-4 in the last three minutes, as the teams headed into the locker room with a 50-46 score line.
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