Ankle sprain keeps Lowry out of practice

The Toronto Raptors may face the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday without Kyle Lowry.

Toronto’s dogged point guard is questionable for Game 3 after spraining his left ankle in Wednesday’s 125-103 loss to the Cavaliers, and backcourt partner DeMar DeRozan said his absence would be “a big problem” for a Toronto team that’s two losses from elimination.

“Kyle is our driving force, our point guard, our leader. So for us not to have him anything close to 100 per cent, it would be difficult on us,” DeRozan said. “But next guy, everybody else gotta do something a little bit more to fill whatever void it is he can’t fully do out there on the court.”

Lowry missed Thursday’s practice at the Biosteel Centre in Toronto and was scheduled for an MRI later in the day, according to head coach Dwane Casey.

The injury occurred early in the third quarter when Cleveland’s Tristan Thompson shoved Norman Powell, who hit Lowry from the side while falling.

“I don’t think the officials saw that part of it,” Casey said of Thompson’s shove. “I don’t think Tristan did it maliciously, but he threw him down, threw Norm down into his ankle, and all of his weight went onto his ankle. So I knew it was bad when I first saw it.

“I was surprised when he came back out, but they were telling me the best thing for him to do was to continue to play, because if it cooled off it would really be bad.”

Lowry was Toronto’s best player in the losses to Cleveland, scoring 20 points in both games.

Cavs forward LeBron James saw Lowry go down, and said the injury “didn’t look that great.”

“I just wanted him to get up. He’s a good friend of mine, a wellrespected guy in our league and we never, no matter throughout competition you don’t want anybody to get hurt, throughout playoffs or period,” James said.