Peck and roll: Lowry gives fan a kiss, Raptors top Heat

However, the report suggested that a possible team for Lee to land if he gets dealt is the Toronto Raptors, although the report mentioned, “However, making the cap math work would be complicated unless a third team that’s willing to take on one of Toronto’s longer deals gets involved”.

“It was awesome”, Lowry said of the fan reaction.

Dallas trailed by as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter, but whittled it all the way down to 107-106 after third-string center Salah Mejri stuffed Thunder forward Kevin Durant at the rim and Mavs guard Deron Williams followed with a 3-pointer that sent the sellout crowd into a tizzy.

The Raptors shot 55.4 percent in the game and Celtics were at 50.6 percent although things tightened up in a 19-19 fourth quarter. As a team we’ve got to bring the energy and focus each night. But one that stood out to this Raps fan was a jaw-dropping circus shot DeRozan made in the waning seconds of the third quarter.

DeRozan, looking to join teammate Kyle Lowry at next month’s all-star game in Toronto, came out on fire and had 22 points, five rebounds and four assists in the first half. Justise Winslow had nine points and eight rebounds for Miami. He was declared out for the game leading up to it because of a sore shoulder but after taking the warmup was deemed ready to play and scored 22 points.

“He’s so talented”, Lowry said of Thomas. “Teams are going to make runs”.

It marks Toronto’s longest winning string under coach Dwane Casey and the franchise’s longest run of victories since a nine-game stretch in 2002. “We made some adjustments tonight and that helped us a little bit…. It may not be pretty but we will find it. We have to maintain our defensive focus”. “We’re right there in every game, we’ve just got to make sure we get over the hump”. Would they play down to the thin lineup the Heat brought north of the border? But the combination of DeRozan’s heat and Valanciunas’ easy dominance proved to be too much.

The Heat were without their $80 million point guard, Goran Dragic, but even the presence of the Slovenian star would not have been enough to change the outcome.

DeRozan had 15 of the Raptors’ points in the first quarter on 6-of-9 shooting as Toronto led by as many as 13. They entered the second half with a 62-56 advantage led by Crowder’s 12 first-half points. Scola led all first-half scorers with 15 points.

Everything seemed to be “feeling good” for DeRozan in the third quarter, when he had 18 points to regain the lead for the Raptors. DeRozan’s 3-pointer put Toronto up by 18 points.

Toronto led 60-44 at the break.

DeRozan scored 15 points in the first quarter to pace the Raptors to a 31-20 lead.

A running layup by Thomas reduced the lead to two points. After a Raptors miss, Bradley tied the game at 105 on a 19-foot pullup jumper with 3:20 to play. But Lowry and Ross hit threes on consecutive possessions moments later to restore Toronto’s lead. “We were just getting beat to balls left and right”, Stevens said. For us defensively and offensively we didn’t execute in anything.