The Miami Heat remained as the only unbeaten team in the Eastern Conference after scoring a hard-earned 107-102 victory against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday at American Airlines Arena in Florida.
The Heat looked poised to run away with a lopsided victory after building a 16-point lead in the third period, but the Raptors managed to trim the lead down to 10 heading into the final period.
The Raptors, led by star point guard Kyle Lowry, pulled within six points halfway through the fourth period, but Shawne Williams derailed their rally with two straight big plays.
Williams tipped-in a missed three-pointer to make it an eight-point game. Lowry answered with a three-pointer in the ensuing possession, but Williams answered with a three-pointer of his own. The Heat held on en route to their third victory to start the season.
"The guys, they see how our team will have to play to be successful," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said via ESPN.
Dwyane Wade led the Heat with 19 points to go along with 11 rebounds and seven assists, while Chris Bosh had another stellar performance as he ended up with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
Bosh said after the game that they are slowly silencing their critics, who already counted them out after the team lost LeBron James after the four-time Most Valuable Player decided to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
"I guess it's just effort," Bosh said of winning their first three games this season. "We know a lot of people aren't expecting us to do much on the boards."
DeMar Derozan, on the other hand, had a big scoring night for the Raptors as he erupted for 30 points and tallied four steals, but the star shooting guard admitted that they were outclassed by the Heat down the stretch.
"They executed well, especially down the stretch," DeRozan said. "We've got to understand when we play against a good team they're going to play well down the stretch..
After the match, Raptors coach Dwyane Casey also admitted that they failed to play good defense for the entire match, saying that they need to show consistency in their upcoming games.
"At the defensive end, it's from start to finish," Casey said. "You don't just guard for 23 seconds. You guard for 24 and then come up with the rebound. We're not doing that right now."
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