MIAMI -- There was no Hassan Whiteside for the Miami Heat because of what could be a serious right knee injury, no Jonas Valanciunas for the Toronto Raptors because of what is a less severe twisted right ankle.

"In the end," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the effect of the injuries to the two standout centers, "it looked like a 6-4-and-under league."

Fortunately for the Raptors, their little guy -- 6-foot-1 Kyle Lowry -- made more clutch shots than Miami's 6-4 Dwyane Wade, who had 38 points.

Lowry scored 33 points as Toronto defeated Miami 95-91 at AmericanAirlinesArena on Saturday night, taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals.

Game 4 is Monday in Miami.

Lowry had been slumping in the first two games of the series, making just 10 of 35 shots from the field for 28.6 percent. He was even worse on 3-pointers, making 2 of 14 for 14.3 percent.

On Saturday, though, Lowry made 11 of 19 (57.9 percent), including 5-of-8 on 3-pointers (62.5 percent).

"I felt it was a matter of time before my shots would go in," Lowry said. "I just wanted to be aggressive.

"I've got great friends and great mentors in my life. And every last one of them told me to keep playing and me be -- stop fighting myself and continue to grind it out."

Bolstered by that mindset, Lowry scored 15 points in the third quarter, going 3 of 3 on 3-pointers. He then added 14 points in the fourth quarter, including a jumper over Wade with 31 seconds left to give Toronto a three-point lead.

"Kyle shot some daggers," Wade said.

The Heat's Joe Johnson missed an open 3-pointer from the top of the key with 16.8 seconds left that would have tied the score.

Wade scored 18 of his 38 points in the third quarter, including a one-handed dunk in which he followed his missed jumper and got the rebound and slam all in one motion. He added 11 points in the fourth quarter but missed a contested 3-pointer from the left corner with 9.5 seconds left and Miami down by four.

That helped give Lowry the edge in his personal duel with Wade. But before all that happened, the big story was the injuries.

Whiteside, who led the NBA in blocked shots this season and finished third in balloting for the league's Defensive Player of the Year, got hurt during a pile-up with 10:53 left in the second quarter. He had injured the same knee in Game 1 but kept playing.

This time, Whiteside left the game with six points and no rebounds in eight minutes.

Whiteside said his pain level was a seven on a scale of 10.

"I think Lowry dove or fell into my knee and pushed it in," Whiteside said when asked how the injury occurred. "I was going for a rebound, and I felt someone fall into my knee. I don't know if it was intentional or by accident."

Valanciunas, who averaged 19.5 points and 13.0 rebounds in the first two games, had 16 points and 12 rebounds when he got hurt with 8:53 left in the third quarter.

He was injured when he tried to block a Wade layup and fell awkwardly.

"There's nothing broken, nothing structural," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "They lost their rim protector (Whiteside) and we lost ours. We'll see what happens (going forward)."

The Raptors led 55-42 when Valanciunas went down, and Miami immediately made a run. In fact, it looked like the Heat was about to take over the game.

Wade, who had gone 0 of 21 on 3-pointers for a stretch of 56 games, has been hot from distance lately. He made 4 of 6 on Saturday and is 8 of 10 from deep in the past five games.

But Wade's sheer will to win was matched if not exceeded by Lowry.

"We wanted to make sure we got home court back," Lowry said. "But we didn't come down here to get one. We came here to get two."

NOTES: Toronto switched its lineup, starting 6-foot-9 SF Patrick Patterson and benching 6-4 rookie SG Norman Powell. ... Toronto F DeMarre Carroll escaped injury in the second quarter when he dived into the front-row seats in an attempt to get a loose ball. ... Also in the second quarter, Heat G Dwyane Wade passed Dirk Nowitzki for 14th place in NBA career playoff points. ... Heat backup C Josh McRoberts had one of the game's spectacular plays, blocking a dunk attempt by Raptors C Jonas Valanciunas, leading to a layup by Heat F Luol Deng. ... Heat PG Goran Dragic played despite having eight stitches in his lower lip after he was elbowed in Game 2. It was the third time this season his mouth was bloodied. He lost a tooth in each of the two other incidents. ... This series is just the fifth in NBA history in which the first two games went into overtime.