Written by Satchel Price at SB Nation.com
The Toronto Raptors are just one win away from the Eastern Conference Finals after beating the Miami Heat, 99-91, in Game 5 on Wednesday night. Toronto now leads the seven-game series, 3-2, and will have a chance to put away Miami on the road in Game 6 on Friday night.
Closing out games hasn’t always been easy for Toronto this postseason, but point guardKyle Lowry stepped up late in Game 5 with some huge plays to get the win. While his shot has eluded him at times, Lowry showed little hesitation in going ISO against Josh Richardson to hit a huge three-pointer at the top of the key that extended Toronto’s late lead:
Lowry finished the game with 25 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, a remarkable turnaround after the star guard had just 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting in Game 4. This was the Lowry that helped carry Toronto to a franchise-record 56 wins in the regular season, even if the team hasn’t necessarily gotten him in every contest.
DeMar DeRozan and Bismack Biyombo were also stellar for Toronto. DeRozan scored a game-high 34 points on 11-of-22 shooting. Biyombo anchored the defense and had a big stretch in the second quarter where he pretty much put Toronto on his back.
Unfortunately, there were also some injuries to put a damper on the action. DeMarre Carroll and Luol Deng both left with injuries in the second half. It’ll be interesting to see whether either player is ready to suit up for Game 6. Either way, the winner of this series is going to have trouble against Cleveland in the next round.
Here are three things we learned:
Bismack Biyombo is now the series’ best big man
Remember when this series had Hassan Whiteside and Jonas Valanciunas? Unless Miami gets back the former at some point soon, injuries have made Biyombo the best big man on either team. It seems hard to believe that a backup who averaged 5.5 points per game in the regular season would be starring in the conference semifinals, but Valanciunas’ injury opened up minutes for Biyombo and Whiteside’s injury has given him a favorable matchup.
In Game 4, Biyombo had one of his best games of the year by recording 13 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks in 31 minutes. He was similarly productive Wednesday night, putting up 10 points, six rebounds and four blocks in 38 minutes. He was especially dominant in the second quarter, and even gave Dwyane Wade the Mutombo finger wag after a big rejection:
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