Kyle Lowry thanks Toronto fans for voting him NBA All-Star starter

The Miami Heat suffered one of their worse losses of the season Friday night, getting blown out 101-81 by the Toronto Raptors, thus extending their losing streak to four games. “We just want to make sure Dwyane is not taking steps back but he had a great day of rest and therapy (Thursday), the whole shoot around and afterwards he worked on it. And all afternoon he got some more treatment and felt like he could give it a go”.

The game in a nutshell – it’s hard to win when the other team shoots 55% from the floor.

TORONTO (AP) – All-Star guard Kyle Lowry came up with a new play Friday night – the peck-and-roll.

“It’s not like I’m going out there telling myself I’m going to go get 30, 40 points”. The two big men, who were paired together for a significant stretch, were arguably Boston’s most efficient players: Olynyk posted a plus-11 plus-minus rating with 18 points of 7 of 10 shooting, while Jerebko was a plus-12 with eight points on 3 of 4 shooting. Toronto made 13-of-25 attempts from deep, compared to just 4-of-17 for the Heat. It was the third time in as many games that DeRozan has topped 30 points.

Still, Raptors coach Dwane Casey said his squad can not take Miami lightly.

Even with Dwyane Wade’s return, the shorthanded Heat were unable to overcome streaking Toronto. The Raptors have been able to find these combinations in short doses, with * a href=”http://stats.nba.com/league/lineups/#!/advanced/?sort=NET_RATING&dir=1&CF=TEAM_ABBREVIATION*E*TOR&Season=2015-16&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&Conference=East” *3 of the top 6 lineups in terms of Net Rating (Offensive Rating minus Defensive Rating) featuring only one of the pair.

The Celtics are now 10-14 in what the league defines as clutch games (when the score is within five points in the final five minutes). After Olynyk scored for Boston, Ross hit a 3-pointer and Toronto led 111-107 with 2:16 to go. The Raptors then closed it out on a pair of free-throws from Lowry.

Lowry responded with a three-pointer. So far, Miami has put up a 3-6 record away from American Airlines Arena in January. “We’re maintaining our principles and we’re maintaining our composure”. Coach Stevens brought Tyler Zeller into the game in the first, both for energy and to combat the size of Jonas Valanciunas.

“I just think it’s very inflamed right now”, Wade said of his shoulder. He missed two of the previous four games with the problem….

In the first meeting, it was not a close game as the Heat won 96-76 at home thanks to a spectacular display in the second half of the game. Now, because of the coaching change in Cleveland on Friday, some are also wondering if Casey could be called upon to coach the Eastern Conference team. This time, they played without three starters, including center Hassan Whiteside, guard Goran Dragic and forward Luol Deng.