Lowry injury dampens enthusiasm over trades
That high the Toronto Raptors were feeling lasted just short of 24 hours.
Adding P. J. Tucker to a trade deadline haul that was already considered significant with Serge Ibaka in the fold a week earlier doesn’t have quite the rush anymore with news that Kyle Lowry is going to be out at least a week — and that’s a week minimum — with a sore right wrist.
That Lowry injured it on the final night before the all-star break and then went to New Orleans and took part in both the three- point shooting contest and the game itself is going to have tongues wagging, but not within the Raptors organization.
“Well, he thought it was going to get better, he did it in the Charlotte game, had treatment over the allstar break down i n New Orleans,” Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said. “Got treatment, came back ( Thursday) night, got treatment and woke up this morning and it wasn’t any better. It is what it is.”
Even Sunday throughout the game in New Orleans, Lowry had a heated towel wrapped around the sore right wrist. Lowry though played perhaps his best basketball of the weekend in the second half of Sunday’s game when he hit six of nine shots and four of seven from behind the arc, so it’s not as if the wrist was troubling him.
In any event, it’s a damper on what should be a time of extreme excitement for the Raptors. Tucker and Ibaka together have the potential to turn a team that was struggling to find any defensive consistency into a juggernaut at that end of the floor.
Without Lowry on the floor, though, it’s going to take some time before anyone knows exactly what the Raptors can be.
But anyone surprised by another injury to this team hasn’t been paying attention this season. This has been the norm since the beginning of the season.
The Raptors have played just one game in 57 with their projected starting five intact. That came Jan. 29 versus Orlando as DeMar DeRozan returned from the injured list ( only to go back the very next game), joining a returning Jared Sullinger in the starting five.
The Raptors returned from the all- star break with a 107-97 win over the Boston Celtics at the Air Canada Centre on Friday night.