- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
Turnover-prone Heat squander chance to get ‘greedy’ in Game 2
- Updated: May 6, 2016
2:34 AM ET
TORONTO — Dwyane Wade has enough playoff experience over more than a dozen years in the league to know how and when to proceed with caution in a postgame interview setting.
So Wade made sure to give the Toronto Raptors their proper amount of credit.
“They won the game in a sense,” Wade said as he assessed the Heat’s 96-92 overtime playoff loss to the Raptors in Game 2 on Thursday. “They took the game from us.”
What the Raptors also did more than anything was take advantage of Miami’s generosity. The Heat headed out of the Air Canada Centre to board their flight back to Miami in Friday morning’s wee hours knowing deep down they probably should have been carrying a 2-0 Eastern Conference semifinal series lead through customs.
Instead, the Heat had to settle for a 1-1 split after committing 41 turnovers over two games that have directly accounted for 46 of the 192 points the Raptors have scored so far in the series. After surviving 20 miscues that cost them 22 points in a 102-96 overtime victory in Game 1, the Heat gave away 24 points off 22 turnovers in Thursday’s loss to ensure a return trip to Canada next week for Game 5.
Josh Richardson has the ball knocked away by Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan; the Heat had 21 turnovers that led to 24 points for the Raptors. Dan Hamilton/USA TODAY Sports
The ball-handling problems aren’t unique to this second-round series. Since taking a 2-0 series lead against the Charlotte Hornets in the first round, Miami has committed 109 turnovers in its past seven playoff games. From a bigger-picture perspective, the Heat should be encouraged for winning one of the first two games in Toronto to swing home-court advantage in their favor as the lower-seeded team.
But if their costly trend continues, the Heat would put themselves in position to hand control of the series right back to the Raptors, whose only semblance of offensive rhythm has been generated by Miami’s mistakes. Case in …
continue reading in source espn.go.com
