MIAMI -- It took all of 24 minutes for Kyle Lowry to put the demons of a horrible playoff slump behind him.
With big man Jonas Valanciunas on the bench with a sprained ankle, and a double-digit lead quickly disappearing, the all-star version of Lowry finally emerged after halftime Saturday.
The Raptors point guard scored 29 of his 33 points in the second half to carry the Raptors to a 95-91 victory over the Miami Heat, and a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven second-round playoff series.
And moments after the couple of hundred Raptors fans at American Airlines Arena cheered them off the court, coach Dwane Casey said it "feels good" to be able to put the ball in Lowry's hands down the stretch.
"Because now you're not searching," Casey said. "Everyone in the world knew Kyle was struggling and it made it a lot easier for us to score when he's scoring the way he did tonight."
DeMar DeRozan added 19 points, while Valanciunas had 16 points and 12 rebounds before he left early in the third quarter.
Lowry shot 11-for-19 and scored 14 of Toronto's final 20 points in a game that could have gone very wrong after Valanciunas limped to the locker-room in the third quarter.
"JV was holding it down, he's been holding it down all playoffs, and I think for me and DeMar, we just said we've got to be more aggressive," Lowry said. "We knew the situation we were in."
That situation was a battle of guards. The Heat had already lost their starting centre Hassan Whiteside to a sprained knee in the first half, and Dwyane Wade responded by scoring 29 of his 38 points in the second half for Miami.
The Raptors were the dominant team in the first half, but Wade lit it up with 18 points in the third quarter that brought American Airlines Arena to life, and sent the game into the fourth all even at 68-68.
The Heat raced out to an early six-point lead, but the Raptors clawed their way back and when Lowry drilled a three-pointer and followed it up with a layup, it gave the visitors a four-point lead with just under four minutes to play.
The game was tied at 82-82 when Lowry drilled a three, then a pair of free throws to put Toronto up by five points with a minute and a half to play, prompting a chant of "Let's go Raptors!" from the fans who made the trip south.
Wade and Lowry traded baskets before DeRozan's five free throws, plus a missed three by Joe Johnson, sealed the victory for Toronto.
DeRozan and Lowry sat at the post-game podium together, as they have done throughout the post-season. DeRozan joked when asked how Lowry's resurgence changes the series.
"Um, it makes it a lot easier," DeRozan said.
"Damn, putting pressure on me," Lowry replied.
DeRozan then turned serious, saying "A lot of people are acting like I've never seen it before. Like it's my first time seeing it. That's the Kyle I know, and I support him the same way even if he's having a rough time."
Lowry's woeful post-season shooting plunged to new depths in Monday's Game 1, when he scored just seven points and stayed on the court throwing up shots until 1:15 a.m.
"I had some good people, the people who can get to me, they got to me," Lowry said. "I've got a guy to my left (nudging DeRozan), he's probably my biggest supporter, and backbone to me right now. And he said 'Just keep going."'
Game 4 is Monday in Miami, and the big question marks will be the health of Valanciunas and Whiteside.
"It's swollen, we're gonna see (Sunday) how it is and we'll play it by ear," said Valanciunas, wearing shower shoes in the locker-room.
Whiteside left with his knee encased in a soft cast.
American Airlines Arena was blanketed Saturday in white Heat T-shirts, dotted with pockets of Toronto fans, who cheered every Raptors basket.
"Nothing surprises me about Raptors fans," said DeMarre Carroll. "Not them packing Jurassic Park, some of the Instagram and tweets I get, nothing surprises me about those fans. I feel like they're some of the best fans in the world and I feel like we have to just keep going and keep giving them something to cheer about."
The series heads back to Toronto for Game 5 on Wednesday.
Valanciunas was superb from the opening tipoff, making his first three shots and scoring eight points in the first to put the Raptors up 23-19 going into the second.
Johnson scored back-to-back baskets to give Miami a brief one-point lead midway through the second quarter, but a Valanciunas alley-oop capped an 18-6 Raptors run for an 11-point Toronto lead. The Raptors went into halftime up 49-40.
Lowry poured in 15 points in the third to lift the Raptors to a 10-point lead, but they couldn't contain Wade, whose jump shot with 23 seconds left tied the game.
