Dwyane Wade came up with one of those classic moments at the Air Canada Centre last night, turning nothing into something not many fans will ever see again, a crazy shot that only a handful of humans would think about trying, let alone be capable of making.

Wade's fadeaway bank shot with a defender all over him and another closing in was the highlight of a night full of them for the Miami Heat guard, who almost single-handedly won one of the more entertaining games of the NBA season at the Air Canada Centre.

The basket, which provided the final two of Wade's sublime 42 points on the night, gave the Heat an eight-point lead with about 45 seconds left in what turned out to be a 108-102 victory.

It's tough to describe just what he did. With the shot clock running down and the game's momentum fully on Toronto's side, Wade dribbled right, to in front of the Raptor bench just so they could look at it more closely, and with Anthony Parker in his face and Chris Bosh not much further away, he calmly turned, fell backwards and banked in a 14-footer.

"We were dead in the water at that point," said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra. "We couldn't get a clean look, they defended that as well as they could.

"It was a broken play at that point and that's what the great players do in this league and Dwyane had done that for us so many times this year already."

Wade's night - 42 points, eight assists and six rebounds - far out-shadowed a 34-point, seven-rebound gem from Chris Bosh, and a 23-point night from Andrea Bargnani.

With a dizzying array of drives and jumpers (Wade went into the game shooting 29 per cent from three-point range and drilled 3-of-5 against the Raptors), he further cemented his place among the very best in the game today.

"He's in that upper echelon. We talk Kobe (Bryant) and LeBron (James) and he's not far off with some of the shots and some of the plays he makes," said Raptors coach Jay Triano. "He's made his teammates better, he just knows how to find guys. If you run two guys at him he's not selfish, he makes tough shots."

None tougher than that last one.

"Fadeaway banker with a guy draped on him. I can't come up with a better way to defend that," said Triano. "We tried running two guys at him earlier, tried to show him bodies in zones, he just found a way to do a number on us."

The Raptors actually played well and hard and with intensity for the whole night but couldn't contain Wade or get defensive stops when they needed them. Parker finished with 16 points and Shawn Marion 10, but Jose Calderon was awful, hitting 1-of-6 field goal attempts and watching the final seven minutes from the bench.

"He didn't look like he had anything," Triano said of Calderon. "Coming off screens, he wasn't feeling comfortable about shooting it, he didn't shoot it a couple of times. It was 15 (the Miami lead when he came out) and we gave him a little bit of a rest and we made a run so I just stayed with the guys who were there."

The Raptors did get a big boost from newly acquired forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who was the first - and only - big man off the bench. Mensah-Bonsu finished with 10 rebounds and gave the frontcourt a much-needed boost of energy.

"The kid comes in and in 15 minutes gets 10 rebounds for us; he's what we've been looking for," said Triano. "He had 10 rebounds and his hand on about four or five others he tried to get. His minutes will climb if he keeps playing like that and gaining us second possessions."