February, 2012
The Miami Heat defeat the Toronto Raptors on Sunday
LeBron James leads the Heat to survive a strong late run from the Toronto Raptors.
By Stephen Lars
The Miami Heat is looking very strong this season. After a somewhat irregular start, LeBron James, Dwayne Wayne, Chris Bosh and Co are finally getting their act together. And with this 89-95 win over the Toronto Raptors, the Heat improves to 18-6 for the season and is now only one game away reaching the Chicago Bulls who lead the Eastern Conference with 20-6. But the Miami Heat have to know very well that for a moment there things got pretty ugly as the Raptors starting closing down the gap in the fourth quarter. At the end, DeMar DeRozan scored 25 points for the Raptors and 3 rebounds and 3 assists. The visiting team also got some help from Jerryd Bayless and Linas Kleiza who scored 17 points a piece.
LeBron James leads the Heat to survive a strong late run from the Toronto Raptors.
But it would be LeBron James the player needed to finish off the Raptors. With 2 minutes to go in the game, James completed a nice steal and sprinted down the middle for a two-hand dunk that gave the Heat a little more space to finish off the game. James finished the night with 30 points and 9 rebounds, while Dwayne Wade came in from behind to score 25 points for the Heat. It was a big team effort in the fourth quarter, but at the end, the Heat managed to defeat the Raptors by 6 points, despite almost blowing up a 15-point margin. The Raptors fought hard, bringing down the game to 3-points, but after the LeBron James steal, it was pretty much over. With the win, the Heat have now improved to win 10 of their last 12 games.
Chris Bosh finished the night with 12 points against his former team. The Raptors put on one heck of a run, trimming down a 15-point deficit. The Raptors effort was capitalized when Bayless made a jumper to get the Raptors within three points. That was the end of a 12-0 Toronto run that got things moving in Miami. After a time-out, the Heat got their game checked, but soon they would work hard to open up the gap. After Bosh missed a fade-away from the right baseline, Bayless tried a 3-pointer to tie. It bounced off, and with the game in the balance, James went to work.
Like it is usually the case with LeBron James, he kicked of the game in great shape. As a matter of fact, James holds the best record of the season with 9.1 points per game in the first quarter alone. But once again, James started strong. He made his first five shots and recorded 12 points in the opening quarter. Actually, LeBron is shooting just a little under 60 percent on the opening quarter this season.
This game was lost by the Toronto Raptors in the 3rd quarter there is really no way to work around it. Miami had a 55-54 lead, and the Raptors were getting close from behind. But at the end, the Heat proved that they are still a team to be respected in the eastern conference. "Our energy was good," said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. "Even throughout the game, I didn't have a problem with the energy. ... It was more of a real concentration and a discipline toward the end of the (shot) clock. And that's something we'll have to continue to get better at."
About the Author
Stephen Lars is a prominent sports blogger and currently covers the Sports news, previews and handicaps for the BetIAS Sportsbook. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.