Star-Studded Backcourts Will Decide Raptors-Heat Series

When the Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors tip off their 2016 second-round series, their starting guards can look across the floor and see mirror images of themselves.

The reflection is crystal clear at the shooting guard spots, where Dwyane Wade and DeMar DeRozan have booked multiple NBA All-Star Game appearances despite neither having a reliable three-ball in his arsenal. They’re crafty isolation scorers—Wade battling Father Time with skill and DeRozan exploiting his youth with explosive athleticism—like Wade did regularly during his younger days.

“He reminds me of me,” Wade said of DeRozan, per Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald. “I love the way he mixes in his shot fakes, and his athletic ability, his post game, his mid-range, that’s about the same things I tried to do about the same time when he did it.”

At point guard, Goran Dragic and Kyle Lowry—once teammates with the Houston Rockets—share more of a fun-house-mirror resemblance. They don’t play the same style, but they do have the same responsibility of setting an aggressive tone for their team.

Collectively, the four control their respective offenses and almost certainly the direction of this series. That’s why we’re putting each pair under the microscope and seeing which side this matchup favors.

Who’s Hotter?

No one had a more fulfilling or important first-round victory than Toronto’s All-Star twosome. After being upset in the opening round of back-to-back postseasons, the Raptors did just enough to fend off the feisty seventh-seeded Indiana Pacers.

Nothing about the win was pretty. The Raptors were actually outscored in the series. Their offense stalled on multiple occasions—a direct result of the dreadful shooting percentages put forth by their leaders: 31.9 for DeRozan and 31.6 for Lowry.

But simply surviving that series should provide a massive lift to the Raptors’ psyche.

“It means a lot,” Lowry said, per ESPNNewYork.com’s Mike Mazzeo. “It means the elephant in the room is gone, the monkey is off our back.”

It also means a better, deeper team now awaits Toronto. And even though Dragic had an up-and-down series against the Charlotte Hornets before his 25-point outburst in Game 7, the Heat backcourt still boasts the superior 2016 postseason resume.

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Wade sprinkled flashes of takeover ability—he willed Miami to a must-win Game 6 road victory—between prolonged stretches of masterful management. He led both vocally and by example, keeping his supporting cast involved enough to make the Heat’s whole better than the sum of its parts.

Dragic’s play was spotty at times, and he had several sideline stints where head coach Erik Spoelstra opted to use the more athletic, defensive-minded Josh Richardson at the point. But the Dragon’s hyper-aggressive performance Sunday highlighted how critical he can be to an offense that has emphasized pace and transition opportunities since losing Chris Bosh at the All-Star break.

“We love when he is …

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