Lowry is ready to play despite ankle ‘tweak,’ coach says

TORONTO — There was positive and not so positive injury news coming out of Saturday’s Raptors practice.

On the good side, all-star point guard Kyle Lowry apparently wasn’t feeling any ill effects from hurting his ankle late in Friday’s win over Charlotte.

Lowry had stepped on Kemba Walker and quickly hustled off the floor following the game, after suffering a “tweak.”

But head coach Dwane Casey said all was good with Lowry.

“He’s all right, he’s fine, he went through practice, so he’s fine, he’s OK,” Casey said.

Lowry’s had a tough past couple of games, shooting a combined 8-for28 with six turnovers in each appearance, but was fantastic against Chicago — Sunday’s opponent — the game before that and had a brilliant fourth quarter against Charlotte to help sink the Hornets.

The negative would be the fact that DeMarre Carroll, unless just being extremely hard on himself, seems a ways off from being completely healthy.

Carroll missed nine games due to a knee contusion and has been battling plantar fasciitis for weeks, but has looked solid since returning. He was particularly good against Charlotte, tying his season-high with four three-pointers, along with his customarily good defence.

Still, Carroll isn’t quite right healthwise.

“It’s not the best I’ve felt, but I just told myself if I’m gonna get out there I might as well just play through it,” Carroll said.

“I think I’ve been playing a little timid, scared of re-hurting something so I told myself when I get out there, just play. As long as I’m out there, I might as well just play as hard as I can and if something happens, it happens.”

Carroll is still under a minutes restriction of about 25 per game and, though he isn’t overly pleased with himself, his head coach is.

“He’s playing at a high clip, he’s not playing tentatively, so hopefully he’s closer now than he has been (to being 100 per cent),” Casey said.