Lowry’s grit powers Raptors over Nets
Brooklyn is bad, but after a 2-8 stretch, Toronto will take a win however it comes
NEW YORK — The Toronto Raptors came to New York resembling a wounded animal. They were hurting, irritable and more than a little bit ornery.
Fittingly, Kyle Lowry got bloodied for four stitches to his right forearm after colliding with a camera on a basket stanchion, but returned to lead the team to a 103-95 win over the last-place Brooklyn Nets on Sunday.
Lowry was everywhere, finishing with his first triple-double in nearly a calendar year, playing particularly well after the Nets cut a 17-point lead down to four in the final quarter. From there, Lowry made a great pass to Jonas Valanciunas for a score, drew a foul and hit both free throws, grabbed his 10th rebound and found DeMarre Carroll for a driving layup to stick a final dagger in the plucky Nets.
Lowry had 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists as the Raptors snapped a five-game road losing streak, the longest for the franchise since 10 straight in 2012.
The key, all agreed, was stringing better defence together for a longer period than usual.
“Guys were just motivated, guys didn’t want to lose another,” Raptors forward DeMarre Carroll said after a strong two-way game that included 15 points, five rebounds and three steals. “You could sense within the locker-room that we’d been losing a lot of close games, games that shouldn’t be close, so we just tried to come out tonight and tried to give it our all, and that’s what we did.”
Brooklyn is truly awful, but with losses in eight of their previous 10 games heading in, Lowry and the Raptors couldn’t be too picky. A win is a win.
With DeMar DeRozan and Patrick Patterson sidelined again with respective ankle and knee injuries, somebody had to help Lowry out. Valanciunas did his best, scoring a game-high 22 points, but it was Terrence Ross, on his 26th birthday, supplying the needed punch off the bench. Ross hit three of Toronto’s five three-pointers, threw down two monster dunks and scored 17 in all. Valanciunas outscored Nets star centre Brook Lopez by a bucket. Rookie Pascal Siakam brought some energy, providing six points, six rebounds and a game-best plus15 effort in 30 minutes.
But this was Lowry’s show. His ninth career triple-double was a virtuoso performance. He led all players in rebounds, despite being the smallest competitor on the court, and rarely turned the ball over, which was important because the 9-42 Nets could barely go a minute between miscues (21 in all, leading to 25 Raptors points).
The hope had to be that the sadsack Nets got put away early, allowing Lowry to get a lot of rest ahead of Monday’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers. But that wasn’t to be, because the overmatched squad scrapped until the end, forcing Lowry into a 40- minute afternoon. When it was over, whether it was his arm or something else, Lowry grimaced as he rose from his chair.
Minutes earlier he had explained, somewhat tongue in cheek, what happened when he got cut and why he missed each of his five threepoint attempts, his only blemish on the day.
“Four stitches. That’s why I missed all my shots tonight — the stitches,” he said. “The stitches messed me up tonight, y’all. That’s the only reason I missed my shots. Once the stitches get out, I can get back in rhythm.”
Beforehand, Raptors head coach Dwane Casey had talked about needing to limit the floor time for his all-star guard so he will have something left in the tank for the second half of the season.
“He’s feeling under the weather, the flu or whatever it is,” Casey said. “He’s playing big minutes (Lowry leads the NBA, averaging 37.7). I’ve got to do a better job of getting his minutes down. With everybody hurt and guys being out, it’s tough to do, but I’ve got to do that for the long run.”
Lowry wore down a couple of seasons ago because he was out of shape and exhausted from a huge workload. Lowry always plays a lot, but his task grows more herculean when DeRozan has to sit.
Would Lowry have preferred more of a break?
“Man, I want to chill. What you think? I want to hang out,” he said.
“I want to relax. I want to clap (for) my teammates. My job is to play. When I’m needed, I’m going to be there. If I’m not needed, I’ll sit on the bench.”