MIAMI — The Miami Heat went small, and came up big.
MIAMI — The Miami Heat went small, and came up big.
With that, another Game 7 awaits.
Goran Dragic scored a postseason career-high 30 points, Dwyane Wade added 22 and the Heat rode a small lineup to a 103-91 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, tying their Eastern Conference semifinal series 3-3.
“Last year at this time we were all on vacation,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So often in this business people tend to want to search for the easy route. There’s usually not an easy way in a seven-game series, certainly not with a second and third seed going against each other. This is the path … and now we’ve pushed it to a Game 7.”
It comes Sunday in Toronto. The winner will head to Cleveland for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals on Tuesday night. Both the Heat and the Raptors won a Game 7 in the first round.
Kyle Lowry scored 36 points for Toronto, on 12-for-27 shooting. DeMar DeRozan added 23 for the Raptors, but their teammates combined to shoot 14 of 34 from the floor and manage 32 points.
“We came here to try to win the game,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “We didn’t come here with a seven-game series in mind. It’s been a great series, they’re a championship-caliber team, well-coached team, but we came in here to try to win the game. We didn’t come in here wanting a Game 7.”
Joe Johnson had 13 points, Justise Winslow added 12, and Josh McRoberts scored 10 for the Heat. But now they need a win on the road, or else the season ends Sunday.
“We played all year to get 56 wins and be the No. 2 seed in the East and get home court in this type of situation,” Lowry said. “It’s going to be fun. Game 7, two versus three, get an opportunity to play on one of the biggest stages there is.”
Dragic shot 12 of 21, Wade blocked a game-high three shots and the Heat — despite some serious size deficiencies with injured starting center Hassan Whiteside still out — only lost the rebounding battle 43-41.