Thanks to red shoelace, DeMar DeRozan, Raptors one win from East finals

2:29 PM ET

MIAMI — These days, Toronto Raptors director of sports science Alex McKechnie keeps a red shoelace in his pocket at all times.

The Raptors wouldn’t be one win away from their first-ever trip to the Eastern Conference finals without it.

During stoppages of play in Game 5, McKechnie treated guard DeMar DeRozan’s injured right thumb by wrapping a red shoelace around it.

The seemingly unorthodox treatment worked wonders. DeRozan tied his playoff career-high with 34 points, allowing the Raptors to take a 3-2 lead against the Miami Heat in their second-round playoff series.

“Once he takes it off, I can move my finger. I try to do it as much as possible. It hurts like hell, but I like that it helps.”

DeMar DeRozan on the red shoelace

“It’s not the first time I’ve done it. I’ve done it many, many times,” McKechnie said at the team’s morning shootaround Friday before Game 6 at American Airlines Arena.

“I think the first thing to understand is that the process is actually a very traditional way of treating injured fingers. It’s used to create pressure and compression. You start very firm and you actually release pressure as you go through (wrapping it). Once it’s completely covered in the string of the shoelace you mobilize the joint so you actually get tissue drainage and mobilization and you get immediate recovery in range (of movement).”

The inflammation comes back, however, so …

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