Done, and done.
Ellington scored a career-high 32 points while setting Miami’s single-season record for 3-pointers, and the Heat wrapped up the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs by beating the Toronto Raptors 116-109 in overtime Wednesday night.
”It’s just absolutely fitting that it would come down to an overtime game with this group,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. ”It was a heck of a regular season. Now we’re on to the second act.”
That starts this weekend, when the Heat go to Philadelphia and take on the third-seeded 76ers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
Kelly Olynyk, Dwyane Wade, Justise Winslow, James Johnson and Tyler Johnson each scored 11 points for the Heat, who got 10 each from Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo.
Ellington needed six 3s to beat the record of 225 that Damon Jones set in the 2004-05 season. He finished the season with 227, and now gets to go to his hometown to start the postseason.
”A big-time overtime win,” Ellington said. ”We feel like if you put us up against anybody in seven games, we can beat them. That’s the kind of team we feel like we are. It’s going to be a dogfight no matter what.”
Kyle Lowry scored 28 points for Toronto, which already had the top seed in the East wrapped up – but played its regulars in this one anyway. The Raptors will meet No. 8 Washington in the first round.
DeMar DeRozan had 19 points Cheap Barkevious Mingo Jersey , Jakob Poeltl had 16 and Jonas Valanciunas scored 12 for the Raptors, who were outscored 11-4 in overtime.
”We had a goal set out that we would win 60 games before these 82 were up,” DeRozan said. ”That didn’t happen. Time to clear that. None of that matters now. Get ready for this weekend.”
Even with nothing standings-wise to play for, the Raptors had no qualms about using their starters. Lowry, DeRozan, Valanciunas and Serge Ibaka combined to play more than 120 minutes.
The Raptors were 22-60 in 2010-11, the season before coach Dwane Casey came to Toronto. They ended this season 59-23.
”It’s taken us a while to build our program, to get it where it is,” said Casey, a coach of the year candidate this season. ”This (Heat) program has multiple championships and we’re trying to get to that level organically. And it takes time. You’re just not going to wave a magic wand and turn a player into Magic Johnson or Larry Bird or anybody like that. It’s part of the process, and that’s something I know our organization is proud of.”
Ellington’s 3-pointer with 18.8 seconds left in regulation put Miami up two, and Poeltl tied it with a tip-in. But Miami scored the first five points of the extra session and didn’t look back.
A year ago on the last night of the season, the Heat were left teary-eyed and with a sour taste in their mouths after missing the playoffs.
This time John Franklin-Myers Color Rush Jersey , Wade and Udonis Haslem toasted each other with flutes of fancy champagne to celebrate their 15th NBA season.
”It really means something, every time you complete a season especially as you get up there,” Wade said. ”So both of us are a little tipsy.”
TIP-INS
Raptors: Key reserve Fred VanVleet left with 1:32 remaining in regulation after apparently getting hurt while trying to fight through a screen. He stayed down for several seconds near the Toronto bench before getting helped off the floor. … Toronto went 25-16 on the road, and 40-12 against East opponents.
Heat: All-Star point guard Goran Dragic missed the game with soreness in his right knee. The Heat are not concerned about his availability for Game 1 of the playoffs. … Miami finished 26-15 at home.
FIORENTINO HONORED
Tony Fiorentino, one of the Heat original employees who started as an assistant coach in the team’s inaugural season 30 years ago before transitioning to broadcasting, was honored in a halftime ceremony. Fiorentino has spent the last 15 season as the Heat television analyst, and will assume a team-ambassador position when Miami’s playoff run ends.
SIZZLING POELTL
To say Poeltl is going into the postseason on a hot streak is an understatement. Poeltl ended the regular season having made 34 of his last 39 shots in the final eight games. Poeltl is also the only Raptors player who appeared in all 82 regular-season contests.
UP NEXT
Raptors: Face Washington in Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
Heat: Face Philadelphia in Eastern Conference quarterfinals.
—
Tony Sparano once beat Bill Belichick with the single wing, but wasn’t as old as that made him sound.
Sparano was only 56 when he died unexpectedly Sunday. The Minnesota Vikings announced his death in a statement that did not provide a cause.
He had been the Vikings’ offensive line coach since 2016.
The most memorable moment in Sparano’s 19-year NFL coaching career came in 2008, when he was a rookie head coach with the Miami Dolphins, inheriting a team that had gone 1-15 the previous season. In Week 3 he surprised Belichick with a single wing-style formation that the Dolphins called the wildcat, and they won at New England 38-13.
The wildcat became a fad around the league, and the stunning upset propelled Sparano’s team to 11 wins and the AFC East title. It’s one of two playoff berths for the franchise since 2002.
That was Sparano’s lone winning season, and he was fired in 2011 after going 29-32 in Miami. He was popular with his players Leonard Williams Jersey , but a dismal home record, declining attendance and a falling-out with general manager Jeff Ireland accelerated his firing by owner Stephen Ross.
Sparano was the Oakland Raiders‘ interim head coach in 2014 after the team fired Dennis Allen, and he went 3-9. He also worked as an assistant for the Browns, Redskins, Jaguars, Cowboys and 49ers, and most recently for Vikings coach Mike Zimmer.
”I love Tony Sparano,” Zimmer said in a statement. ”He was a great teacher, a grinder of a worker and had a toughness and fighting spirit that showed in our linemen. He was a great husband, father and grandfather and a great friend to me. This is just sinking in for us, but Tony will be sorely missed by all.”
Sparano’s former players also paid tribute.
”Heart broken and lost for words! We lost a great man,” tweeted Brian Hartline, who played receiver for Sparano in Miami.
”Damn I’m at a loss for words Youth Rashaan Gaulden Jersey ,” tweeted Raiders Pro Bowl tackle Donald Penn. ”Coach Sparano taught me so much not just about football about life also.”
Sparano played at the University of New Haven where he was a four-year letterman. He was hired as New Haven’s head coach in 1994 and held that position for five seasons.
In Miami, Sparano lost his first two games before turning to the wildcat. Six times they ran plays from the formation at New England, snapping the ball directly to running back Ronnie Brown, and four of those plays resulted in touchdowns.
”It was like playing hide and go seek, making them guess,” Brown said at the time.
Sparano said the Dolphins began practicing the wildcat during training camp but waited until the Patriots game to spring it.
”This is not something that just came up and we scribbled on the board a couple of days ago,” the coach said.
Defenses soon adjusted, and a sputtering offense in Sparano’s final two seasons at Miami contributed to his firing. But the Dolphins haven’t won at New England since the wildcat game.
”We were saddened to learn of Tony Sparano’s tragic and unexpected passing,” owner Ross said in a statement. ”Tony made an indelible impact on our team’s history. His toughness, grit and leadership were evident to everyone who had the chance to coach with or play for him.”
—
.
