Big Men or No, Heat-Raptors Will Be Decided by Dwyane Wade vs. Kyle Lowry

MIAMI — Injuries flipped Game 3 of the Toronto Raptors-Miami Heat second-round series on its head.

Superstar talents returned it to a predictable place.

The first 28-odd minutes were defined by massive maladies, as Hassan Whiteside (right knee) exited in the second quarter and Jonas Valanciunas (right ankle) departed during the next.

So the game’s final stretch belonged to dueling All-Stars Kyle Lowry and Dwyane Wade.

“Wade was himself, Kyle went back to being himself,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said after his team’s 95-91 win. “Both guys were putting their stamp onto the game. Both of them are great players. … Luckily for us, our guy came out ahead.”

It was an overdue return for Lowry. He entered the game with ghastly postseason shooting marks (30.8 from the field, 15.8 outside) and managed just four points on 2-of-6 shooting during 19 first-half minutes. But after striping a pair of triples to start the third, the 6’0″ bulldog point guard finally got his swagger back.

“I felt like it was just a matter of time for me to shoot the shots for them to go down,” he said.

Once they started falling, they never stopped. Lowry scored 29 of Toronto’s 46 second-half points and finished with 33 points on only 19 shots. He hit a perfect five of five from distance after intermission and harassed Heat point guard Goran Dragic throughout the contest (12 points on 14 shots, five turnovers against one assist)

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The fact Dragic was still the Heat’s second-best scorer shows how easily this could have gotten out of hand for the team. Wade wouldn’t let that happen.

The 34-year-old erupted for a season-high 38 points—his most in a playoff game since 2012—on 13-of-25 shooting, adding eight rebounds and four assists to his stat line. He also drilled four of six from distance, after entering the playoffs having not made a three-pointer since …

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