Dwyane Wade scored 30 points and had a clutch steal and dunk in overtime as the Miami Heat evened its second-round playoff series with a 94-87 win over Toronto.
The Heat stepped it up in overtime as Joe Johnson blocked two shots, Justise Winslow produced a tip-in basket and Goran Dragic had a key layup for Miami evening the best-of-seven series at two games each.
“That is just him being D. Wade,” Dragic said. “Unbelievable. He is unstoppable.”
Game five is Wednesday in Toronto where Wade will surely be enemy No. 1 after Toronto fans accused the Chicago, Illinois native of being disrespectful in game three for shooting baskets during the playing of the Canadian national anthem.
Wade heard cheers instead of boos on Monday as he tied the score with 12 seconds left by driving to the rim for a basket. Toronto had a chance to ice the win in regulation but Cory Joseph missed a 15-foot jump shot at the buzzer in front of a crowd of 19,600 fans at Miami’s AmericanAirlines arena.
Toronto, which played without injured centre Jonas Valanciunas, got scoring from some unexpected sources — 14 points each from DeMarre Carroll and Joseph.
Bismack Biyombo started in place of Valanciunas and tallied a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Valanciunas is out for the rest of the series.
But Toronto’s starting guards were largely ineffective. Kyle Lowry had 10 points, and DeMar DeRozan, who was playing with a jammed right thumb, had nine points.
Lowry fouled out with 1:58 left in the fourth quarter after he was called for an offensive infraction.
Heat big man Hassan Whiteside also skipped Monday’s game with a knee injury. His status for game five is uncertain.
Veteran Amar’e Stoudemire started in place of Whiteside.
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