NBA PLAYOFFS EASTERN CONFERENCE

Heat survive heave

Wade too much in overtime

TORONTO — It only counts as one victory, although the Miami Heat had to work twice as hard to get it.

Goran Dragic scored 26 points, Dwyane Wade had seven of his 24 in overtime, and the Heat beat the Toronto Raptors 102-96 on Tuesday night in Game 1 of their NBA Eastern Conference semifinal series.

At a glance

All times Central Best-of-7

CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS

TUESDAY’S GAMES

Miami 102, Toronto 96, OT

Miami leads series 1-0

Golden State 110, Portland 99

Golden State leads series 2-0

TODAY’S GAME

Atlanta at Cleveland, 7 p.m.

Cleveland leads series 1-0

“We had to win the game twice tonight,” Wade said.

Joe Johnson (Little Rock Central, Arkansas Razorbacks) scored 16 points and Josh Richardson had 11. Hassan Whiteside had 17 rebounds for the Heat.

Kyle Lowry’s three-pointer from his own side of the halfcourt line capped Toronto’s six-point comeback in the final 20 seconds of regulation, but the Raptors couldn’t deliver in the extra session. Toronto went scoreless for the first 3:46 of overtime before DeMar DeRozan hit a jumper.

Dunks by DeMarre Carroll and Jonas Valanciunas made it 99-96 with just over 10 seconds to play. Toronto got the ball back after a Miami turnover on the inbounds play, but Wade stripped the ball from DeRozan and sealed it with a three-point play.

“D-Wade did a great job of reading the play and jumping toward the ball, trying to take the ball away from me,” DeRozan said.

Wade (3,638 points) moved into 16th place on the NBA’s playoff scoring list, passing Elgin Baylor (3,623). Scottie Pippen (3,642) is in 15th place.

Valanciunas had 24 points and 14 rebounds, and DeRozan added 22 points for the Raptors, who dropped to 1-9 in the opening game of a postseason series. Five of those defeats have come at home.

“Game 1, you’ve got to be on point,” Raptors Coach Dwane Casey said. “You can’t have some of the mistakes that we made, turning it over. We’d get stops and lose it back, not rotate quick enough in some of the situations.”

DeRozan connected on his first three field goal attempts, then made only 6 of 19 the rest of the way.

Lowry also struggled, going scoreless in the first half and finishing 3 of 13 for seven points. The All-Star guard headed to Toronto’s practice gym on the upper level of Air Canada Centre to work on his shooting after the game.

“We know he’s not shooting the ball well,” Casey said. “He’s not making the shots that he normally makes. It’s just like a hitter; hitters go through slumps. He’s there.”

Wade saw the lighter side of Lowry’s 8-for-50 performance from three-point range in the playoffs so far.

“Sounds like me in the regular season,” joked Wade, who didn’t make a three from late December until Game 6 of Miami’s first-round series against Charlotte. “He’s right on track to make some big threes soon.”

Toronto’s Terrence Ross set a career playoff high with 19 points and Cory Joseph had 10.

Miami led 86-81 after a three by Dragic with 40 seconds left, but Toronto trimmed the deficit to 89-86 on a three by Ross with 6.5 seconds remaining.

Luol Deng threw the ball away on the resulting inbounds play and Ross was fouled. He made the first but missed the second, and Whiteside was fouled as he grabbed the rebound. Whiteside missed the first but made the second, giving Miami a three-point edge with 3.3 seconds to go.

Lowry then was given time and space by the Heat to let go of his long-range attempt, and it went through for his first made three in six attempts, sparking a wild celebration in front of the Toronto bench.

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