NBA playoff scores 2016: Raptors saved their season in spite of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan

Toronto’s top-two players showed virtually no signs of improvements after promising they would.

Updated May 6, 2016, 1:00 PM UTC

Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Game 2 was supposed to be different. Game 2 was when Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan finally stepped up, figured it out and stopped screwing around. That's an overly simplified way of looking at the struggles of Toronto's top two players, but there was reason to believe the duo were finally breaking out of their slumps. They talked about how important it was. Lowry shot on a dimly-lit court after Game 1, long after everyone else had left. DeRozan rocketed off to a quick start in Game 2. And yet by the time overtime came and went, and the Raptors had just barely snuck away with a 96-92 win in Game 2 on Thursday, it was once again in spite of those two.

It looked like Game 2 would be different, too! Lowry and DeRozan hit five of Toronto’s first six field goals, with the Raptors leading by 10 by the end of the first quarter. They finished with 38 points, but it once again came on terrible shooting: 16-of-46, coming in under 35-percent shooting from the field and doing nothing to help their miserable field goal percentages in this postseason.

Of Lowry's seven field goals, two of them were incredibly timely. Up 82-80, Lowry nailed a jumper that gave the Raptors a four-point lead, and after Dwyane Wade put in a three on the other end, Lowry hit again to go up 86-83. But after the Heat tied it, somehow emboldened by the back-to-back makes, this is what Lowry came up with on the potentially game-winning shot. Sure, he had forced overtime with a 50-feet miracle in Game 1, but did he think it would happen again? This shot is inexplicable.

DeRozan isn’t exempt from this. Looking past his 9-of-24 shooting, DeRozan shot 2-of-8 from the free-throw line, including missing both with the game tied 80-80 in the game’s final minute. Lowry also had a 0-for-2 trip in the fourth quarter, both instances that should have put Toronto up enough to never worry about Dragic tying the game, and the Raptors dealing with an extra five minutes that they very easily could have lost (and did in the same scenario in Game 1).

There’s no evidence that DeRozan and Lowry don’t want to win. Clearly, from everything we’ve seen and heard from the Raptors’ duo, they are desperately doing their best to win. No, the criticism of them is completely from a basketball perspective, because the on-court versions of those two are putrid. A couple late jumpers from Lowry doesn’t make up for his 47 prior minutes of nauseating play. The playoff shooting percentages are now 31 percent for Lowry and 33 percent from DeRozan. It’s so strange and difficult to watch these two look like shells of themselves after fantastic regular seasons where they meant so much to Toronto, but there’s no other way to look at it. Both of their playoff runs have been shameful mockeries of what they brought to Toronto all year.

The real players who deserve credit for Game 2's win are Jonas Valanciunas and DeMarre Carroll, who each stepped up huge. That's the story of Toronto's postseason: lesser-known players stepping up and saving the team from itself. The Raptors remain alive, and as long as they're alive, there's still hope that Lowry and DeRozan can find their path. These are two veterans of the league. Maybe it's the next game where things click.

But for the Raptors’ Game 2 win, even when we were finally convinced things would be different, they weren’t. Toronto saved their season, and they did it in spite of those two.

2 more things from Game 2

Joe Johnson’s South Beach renaissance hits a wall

The 34-year-old Johnson was forgotten in Brooklyn, where the Nets languished in the mediocrity of poor front office management. Johnson ground away unnoticed, his good play unnoticed due to the Nets' status as the NBA's most unwatchable team. It shouldn't be a surprise that a good player joining a good team produces good results, but for all those reasons regarding his stay in Brooklyn, it's still surprising to see him light games up like he has.

Being 34, Miami has reduced his responsibilities, avoiding reliance on an old jump shooter who frequently doesn’t make jump shots. But when he does, it can quickly swing a game in one direction or another. Johnson set a playoff high this season with 17 points by the third quarter, and those jumpers were huge as Miami suffered through Toronto’s hot start and ended up with a lead headed into the final frame.

Yet, by the time the final buzzer sounded, Johnson was sitting exactly where he had been: still at 17 points, despite 10 more shots, all missed. As good as Johnson had been, he missed everything in the game’s final 23 minutes, a huge reason why Miami couldn’t climb back over the wall against a Raptors team that seemed like it was trying to give the game away.

Jonas Valanciunas has been criminally underused

Even while the Raptors' two best players (in practice, not actuality) couldn't hit shots if those shots hit them in the face first, Valanciunas was left abandoned without the ball, not getting the touches in the post where he excels even with his primary defender Hassan Whiteside in foul trouble. Truly, it was baffling to see Valanciunas get ignored for most of the game, despite everything, and equally rewarding to see his personal 6-0 run be the difference maker in the game as Toronto rocked back in front. Although Lowry had his late-game moments (good and bad), Valanciunas' steady 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting and 12 rebounds is the type of backbone that the Raptors had to have. He'll have to be a bigger part of Toronto's game plan in the coming games of this series for them to improve.