RAPTORS: BEATING THE HEAT ON HUMP DAY

Quick points following the Raptors' 96-83 victory over the defending NBA champion Miami Heat. Bottom line, winning decisively in the first game since Jorge Garbajosa's ankle injury should only raise a temporary glow:

• Reason No. 1: Playing small ball against Miami might work for a weeknight regular season game. Would it work across six or seven playoff games against the Heat -- or the Chicago Bulls? Juan Dixon and Morris Peterson got more court time. Like many a horny teenager, they couldn't get enough of their own stroke. Dixon (18 points) started 4-of-6 and finished 7-of-15; MoPete started 3-for-5 and finished 3-for-10.
• Reason No. 2: The Heat didn't respond when the Raptors went high-tempo early, which seems strange when this game could be the difference between No. 3 playoff seed and a No. 6. In the first half, Miami looked like it was having the AFI game (as in, aw, f--- it) each NBA team has about five or six of in its system across an 82-game schedule: No one's eager to run back on D, no one's up for hitting the boards and everyone wants to shoot from 15 feet instead of slugging the ball inside.
  
  In other words, it's a basic Monday night YMCA pickup game except everyone on the floor is a six to 12 inches taller, much wealthier and there are 18,000 people watching.
• Hidden play early which serves to sum this up: About three minutes in, Shaq gets the ball on the low left block and makes a power move -- like he's only done about a million times -- but Rasho Nesterovic strips it, the Raptors save possession and run the floor for a lay-in and a four-point swing. It seemed like the Miami players had just stopped playing, expecting the ball to go out of bounds, and they got burned.
• Kris Humphries (right in photo, with unidentified Miami player) was a revelation, getting 10 rebounds in 27 minutes, including seven on the offensive glass to earn unsung hero honours. Hump's night left the impression this was almost a Carleton Ravens kind of game.
  
  Seriously, the Raptors did almost all the things the Ravens do, which makes you wonder if Leo Rautins put a bug in Sam Mitchell's ear ("Smitch, I know this coach in Ottawa..."): On offence, draw and kick to get open looks from beyond the 3-point arc, spread out the scoring and crash the boards on offence. On D, rack up the charges and deflections and defend the outside shot. Granted, the last part was easiest since Jason Williams was practically a self-checker with the bricks he was belching up.
• MoPete had a laugh-and-a-half night. He landed on a fan's foot after hitting a first-half three-pointer -- and apologized to the guy as he ran back up the court. He had a free throw where the ball sat on the rim longer than the climactic putt in Caddyshack. (Where was Bill Murray with the dynamite?) A couple minutes later, the Heat's Dorell Wright saved a possession by throwing the ball off Mo Pete's nose and out of bounds.

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