Raptors storm back to beat Heat with huge 2nd half
Leonard pours in 30, Green sinks late 3-pointer to seal win
Danny Green slipped to the right corner, somehow forgotten by the Miami Heat.
He made them pay.
Toronto has now won three games this season when trailing by 17 points.
"We've always got a chance to come back," Fred VanVleet said.
Green had 18 points and VanVleet added 16 for the Raptors, who survived a wild fourth quarter that saw 12 lead changes and four ties. Miami had three shots on the game's final possession, with Dwyane Wade and Justise Winslow missing threes and Wade having a chance at a tip-in that wouldn't fall.
WATCH | Raptors claw back from 17-point deficit:
Wade blamed himself for Green being so open, acknowledging that he blew the coverage.
"I'm not mad at the loss. I'm mad at the way I played," Wade said. "You're going to lose games in this league. That's fine. We've been playing good basketball and we played some good basketball today. ... Losses are going to happen. It's the way you bounce back from them and the last few times we've had losses we've bounced back pretty well."
Winslow scored 21 points for Miami, which saw its five-game winning streak snapped. Josh Richardson scored 17 and Hassan Whiteside scored 16 for Miami, which was 6 for 12 from the foul line — while Toronto was 19 for 23.
James Johnson and Tyler Johnson each scored 12 for the Heat, while Wade had 10. Pascal Siakam added 10 for the Raptors.
Raptors escape with a win
Winslow's layup with 35.2 seconds left put Miami up by one, and on the next Toronto possession Green found himself wide-open in the right corner — nearly the identical spot from where Ray Allen hit a 3-pointer to deny Green and Leonard the 2013 NBA title when they were with San Antonio.
Green connected, the Raptors got the game's last stop and escaped to move to 7-0 against the Southeast Division this season.
"Gutsy win by us at the end," Raptors coach Nick Nurse said.
Miami led 58-44 at the half and extended the lead to 17 early in the third quarter, before Toronto went to a zone — the defence that the Heat have been using so well of late — and the game changed. VanVleet made three 3s and had 11 points while Leonard added 10 in what became a 31-12 run over the last 8:10 of the quarter by the Raptors, and they took an 81-79 lead into the fourth.
Leonard gets the call
Winslow made a wild layup for a 99-93 lead that came after an 8-0 Miami run — and the Raptors needed about a minute to respond with a lead-taking 8-0 run of their own. VanVleet connected on a 3, Siakam added a three-point play and Leonard drew a blocking call against Winslow that the Heat didn't like with 1:19 left that he turned into a pair of free throws and a 101-99 Toronto edge.
"The whistle went my way tonight," Leonard said.
The lead changed hands four more times from there, Green's three marking the last of those.
"There's some really good things going on," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "And it was a great basketball game ... through 47 minutes."