{"id":9378,"date":"2016-05-03T08:01:29","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T15:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/no-time-to-revel-in-game-7-wins-for-raptors-heat\/"},"modified":"2016-05-03T08:01:29","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T15:01:29","slug":"no-time-to-revel-in-game-7-wins-for-raptors-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/no-time-to-revel-in-game-7-wins-for-raptors-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"No time to revel in Game 7 wins for Raptors, Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI<\/strong> \u2014 The exhilaration of winning Game 7 was short-lived for Toronto and Miami.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s back-to-work time.<\/p>\n

The Raptors play host to the Heat in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal matchup in Toronto tonight, a series that starts a mere two days after both teams survived elimination games on their respective home floors. And the objective for both teams on Monday would be finding ways to get ready for a new opponent while keeping the same edge that helped them eliminate their last one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want them to be relaxed,\u201d Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. \u201cWe\u2019re not done. We have a tough Miami team coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto finally ended its 15-year postseason series victory drought by holding off Indiana in a Game 7 that looked like it was slipping away in the final minutes. Miami\u2019s trip to the second round was secured a bit more easily, as the Heat rolled past Charlotte by 33 points \u2014 the fifth-largest margin in Game 7 history.<\/p>\n

And Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan knows what sort of challenge Miami will bring.<\/p>\n

\u201cVeteran team,\u201d DeRozan said. \u201cLot of guys who have been in these positions. It\u2019s going to be another of these fought-hard series. We don\u2019t expect anything less.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some irony in that Miami is heading to Toronto for the second round, since probably many thought the Heat\u2019s season essentially ended there in February.<\/p>\n

Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh \u2014 back in the city where his NBA career began \u2014 were representing the Heat in the All-Star Game at Toronto, but Bosh\u2019s weekend was derailed by what the team said was a calf strain. Turned out, it really was a blood clot that had been found, the malady ending Bosh\u2019s regular season at the All-Star break for the second straight season.<\/p>\n

The Heat rallied without Bosh and wound up as the No. 3 seed in the East.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to go through the fire together,\u201d Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. \u201cThat\u2019s when you truly grow, when you face adversity together, you get to know each other for real. We\u2019ve been through a lot this year. There have been a lot of emotions with that, but we are still standing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some of what to know going into the series:<\/p>\n

THE SERIES: <\/strong>Miami leads the all-time series between the clubs, 49-26. But Toronto has won five of the last six meetings, holding Miami to 47 percent shooting or less in each of those games. It\u2019s the first playoff matchup between the Heat and Raptors.<\/p>\n

OH, BROTHER: <\/strong>Dorell Wright and Delon Wright faced off countless times in their lives, but never on the same NBA floor. That might change in this series. Dorell Wright rejoined the Heat as the regular season was ending; younger brother Delon Wright is a rookie with the Raptors. Dorell Wright wrote his brother a letter published by The Players\u2019 Tribune as this season started, telling Delon that Toronto stars like Kyle Lowry and DeRozan \u2014 his close friends for some time \u2014 would have his back. \u201cThey reached out to me and let me know you\u2019re in great hands,\u201d Dorell Wright wrote at the time, when he was playing in China. \u201cDo what they say. Follow their lead.\u201d<\/p>\n

BENCH MATCHUP:<\/strong> Miami\u2019s backups got outscored 32-23, on average, by Charlotte\u2019s reserves in that series. Toronto could be an issue for the Heat in that department as well; the Raptors outscored Indiana\u2019s bench 34-27 on average in their matchup.<\/p>\n

WADE WATCH: <\/strong>Wade comes into this series 17th on the NBA\u2019s all-time playoff scoring list, at 3,614 points \u2014 having just passed Wilt Chamberlain. He should climb a few more spots in this matchup. He\u2019s 10 points away from passing Elgin Baylor, 29 from passing Scottie Pippen, 50 from passing Dirk Nowitzki and 88 from passing Magic Johnson. All this comes after a season where he went from 54th to 39th on the regular-season list. \u201cDwyane Wade is back to being a young Dwyane Wade. He is a handful,\u201d Casey said.<\/p>\n

COOL JOE:<\/strong> Heat forward Joe Johnson was a matchup nightmare for Toronto in the playoffs two years ago when Brooklyn ousted the Raptors in the first round, winning Game 7 on the Raptors\u2019 home floor. Johnson averaged 21.9 points in that 2014 series, and scored 50 points in his two games at Toronto this season (one with Brooklyn, the other with Miami).<\/p>\n

EASY AS 1-2-3-4:<\/strong> This is the first time since 2010 that the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference made the second round. No. 1 Cleveland is taking on No. 4 Atlanta in the other East semi series, opposite Toronto-Miami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 The exhilaration of winning Game 7 was short-lived for Toronto and Miami. It\u2019s back-to-work time. The Raptors play host to the Heat in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference semifinal matchup in Toronto tonight, a series that starts a mere two days after both teams survived elimination games on their respective home floors. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9378"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}