The Miami HEAT defeated the Toronto Raptors 96-76 Sunday night at AmericanAirlines Arena. Chris Bosh led the way for the HEAT with 23 points and eight rebounds.
1. Bosh Gets Hot
After a relatively quiet first half, Bosh made his presence felt in a big way down the stretch. While he defended pretty well in the post all game, he started to find his groove offensively later in the game. In particular, Bosh started to hit his usual threes from the wing once he set his feet and took his time. He had a clutch stretch about midway through the fourth that included a nifty spin move to the rack in addition to back-to-back 3-pointers. Bosh was simply locked in at that point, as he scored 16 of his 23 points in the second half on 6-of-7 shooting.
2. Justise Winslow Does It Again
On Sunday night, Winslow simply continued to make big plays that won’t always show up in the box score. The rookie played excellent defense on DeMar DeRozan and forced him to take plenty of tough shots. He also took advantage of his opportunities in transition thanks to that great defense by him and his teammates.
The most exciting transition play came at the beginning of the fourth quarter when Winslow ripped the ball from DeRozan with the help of Bosh near the left wing. Bosh then grabbed the ball, took a few dribbles and passed it to Mario Chalmers. From there, Chalmers took it up court before throwing a pin-point bounce pass to a streaking Josh McRoberts, who threw down the massive one-handed slam to put the HEAT up 82-67.
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As a whole, Miami held Toronto to a paltry 21.9 percent shooting in the second half. A lot of that was due to Winslow keeping DeRozan in check. In all, the rookie tallied nine points, five boards and an assist.
3. Feed the Beast
In the first half, Whiteside was very active on the offensive glass and fought hard for loose balls. As a result, he got to the line and hit all three of his free throws. While that was great, all bets were off once the third quarter occurred.
In the third, Whiteside protected the rim better and made things extremely difficult in the paint for the Raptors. While he had six blocks in the contest, none were as vicious as one he had on James Johnson in the third quarter where he spiked it to the ground and created a transition opportunity for the HEAT.
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The big man also came through with some heady put-backs for Miami in addition to a mid-range jumper with about four minutes to go in the quarter. Whiteside scored nine points and tallied three blocks in the third alone. In all for the game, he totaled 20 points and 11 boards (six offensive) to go along with his six blocks.
4. Chalmers and Tyler Johnson Pick Up the Pace
Thanks to the great hustle and energy by Chalmers and Tyler Johnson, the HEAT went on a 16-5 run early in the second quarter to take a 38-32 lead with 6:14 left in the first half. The play that capped off the run was perhaps one of the best plays of the night.
Chalmers drove inside from the top of the circle thanks to a screen from Whiteside. Chalmers then threw up a lob for Tyler Johnson, who cut down the baseline. From there, Johnson made a phenomenal adjustment in the air to reach the ball over Kyle Lowry and tip it in softly.
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In addition to his usual plays in transition and catch-and-shoot threes, Johnson also played very stout defense alongside Winslow. He finished the game with 10 points, three boards and an assist. Chalmers, meanwhile, looked in control for a majority of the game and had nine points, seven boards and six assists.
Game Note: Gerald Green (illness) and Josh Richardson were inactive.
