• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Raptors overcome Wade, survive Heat

Nov 20, 2008 - 6:09 AM MIAMI (Ticker) -- Sometimes a team has to stand toe to toe with the opposition's superstar en route to victory. The Toronto Raptors were able to take Dwyane Wade's best punch on Wednesday.

Andrea Bargnani scored 25 points and Jermaine O'Neal added 16 and 15 rebounds to lead the Raptors to a 101-95 victory over the Miami Heat.

Jose Calderon returned after missing two games with a strained right hamstring and chipped in eight points and seven assists, converting a driving layup with 1:09 remaining to give the Raptors a five-point cushion.

Wade nearly brought the Heat back all by himself. He scored 25 of his 40 points in the second half but came up just short on a 3-pointer with three seconds left that would have pulled Miami within one possession of the lead.

"Tonight we played a team that played well throughout the whole game and hit big shots," Wade said. "(When) you start hitting big shots like that, you're supposed to win the game. We kept fighting, kept fighting, and had a chance. But at the end of the day, tonight, the best team won."

He finished 16-of-30 from the floor and added 11 assists and five blocks.

"That's what he does," Toronto center Chris Bosh said. "Dwyane, he's a scorer and he had it going tonight. We made him work for every shot, we can say that. But, we kind of got him going when we started to get a little lazy, stop being up with him, we start reaching too much. He's a strong guy. When he's going to the hole, he goes strong."

Wade gave the Heat their first lead since late in the first quarter when he drove the lane for an emphatic dunk to make it 84-83 with 8:38 remaining in the game.

"Dwyane was sensational and it just kept coming," Miami coach Eric Spolstra said. "I thought at some point he would get fatigued. I didn't take him out. The energy he was expending on both ends of the floor (was sensational)."

But Anthony Parker, who scored all 19 of his points in the second half, poured in five straight and Bosh added a jumper to give Toronto a 90-84 edge with 5:03 left in the game.

"It's not an easy job (guarding Dwyane Wade) but he got a lot of confidence, especially late in the game when he was letting some of those shots go," Bosh said of Parker. "I was amazed. He was shooting some rainbows up there. When he doesn't hesitate, he's a great shooter."

Wade scored nine of Miami's last 11 points down the stretch but could not get his team over the hump.

"When you're in an opponent's building you got to show mental toughness," O'Neal said. "We knew they were going to make a run, but to what magnitude we didn't know. They were able to cut the deficit to one. Coach took a time out and we said 'just stay with it and do the things that got us the lead to help us get the lead again,' and we did that."

The Raptors led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter after Bargnani was fouled on a 3-point attempt and converted all three free throws to make it 76-59 with 2:01 remaining in the third.

Wade scored all eight points during an 8-1 run over the remainder of the third to pull the Heat to within 77-67 entering the final period.

"Shot distribution, four of our five starters got double-figure shots (points) but you got to give Miami credit," Toronto coach Sam Mitchell said. "They played hard but so did we. They made some plays. We seemed to be putting the game away and they came back and made some shots. Every time they took the lead, we came right back."

The Raptors won despite a sub-par game from Bosh, who had just nine points through three quarters and finished with 15 on 7-of-17 shooting.