Cause for concern
Time is running on Raps to turn it around before playoffs
CLEVELAND — Kyle
Lowry doesn’t need to be told when he has a bad game.
The first question asked of him last night was still being asked when Lowry interrupted to point out the obvious.
“I played terrible, that’s probably part of it,” Lowry said ignoring a question about defensive slippage. “It doesn’t help.”
In a game that was played less than 24 hours after Lowry, with the permission of the team, headed down to San Antonio to watch his Villanova Wildcats win their second National Championship in a row, Lowry’s numbers were very un-Lowry like.
In just under 29 minutes Lowry was 2-for-11, committed three turnovers, and had three assists and five rebounds. He finished the night a minus-9.
“I’m still a professional. I still come out here and do my job. I just missed shots. Some turnovers early, that’s it. What I did last night was support my team. I got back in time. I didn’t miss nothing. I just missed some shots.”
The Raptors finished the night on the wrong end of a 112-106 final with the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was their second loss to Cleveland in the past two weeks and fifth loss in their past eight games overall.
Only a win by the Milwaukee Bucks over the Boston Celtics prevented the Raptors lead in the East from falling to a single game.
The Celtics will have the opportunity to do that tonight when the two teams square off at the Air Canada Centre.
But first comes the dissection of the loss in Cleveland and it wasn’t pretty, particularly for Lowry who, coming off his personal trip to San Antonio, picked the worst of all possible times to come up small.
“We did some things good,” Lowry said. “Just a bad game overall for me. I’ll take the ‘L on me.”
Lowry really didn’t have to take the L. There were more than enough Raptors’ Twitter folks who had already foisted that one on him.
But in the bigger scheme of things, it’s the present direction this team is headed in that is most troubling.
Depending on who you talk to the main concern is offensive or defensive rhythm. Head coach Dwane
Casey believes the defensive identity of his team has gone missing of late but at the same time he laments the loss of the offensive rhythm.
DeMar DeRozan believes the loss of the former is causing the loss of the latter.
“Think it could be our offensive (struggles) carrying over to the defensive end,” DeRozan said. “When we are rolling offensively everything gets to clicking. I think it’s just one of those stretches where things aren’t going our way offensively and it’s kind of affecting us defensively because we are giving other teams opportunities to get out and get their rhythm going and they are getting their rhythm going.”
“It’s going to come. It’s going to come,” DeRozan said. “We’ve been playing great all year. Nobody wants to go through a couple of games like these but it happens. I think it could be something that is good for us and I feel like it will be. It puts us in a place where we have to understand you know ‘Let’s get back to what got us here.’
“It’s one of them challenges we all have to step up to and want to accept,” DeRozan continued. “I think that’s where we are at. We are not going to shy away from it. I have the utmost faith and confidence that it is going to be OK.”
LUE RAMPING UP TO A RETURN
Cavs head coach Ty Lue made another step toward his full-time return to the Cavaliers bench taking part in the Cavs shootaround yesterday. Larry Drew, who is 7-1 since Lue left the bench said Lue has actually been around the team quite a bit the past five or six days. Drew didn’t come right out and say it but he seemed to be hinting broadly that with the playoffs fast approaching Lue’s return to his regular duties is right around the corner. “I sense everyone is rolling up their sleeves and ready to get to work,” Drew said of the final push toward the playoffs.
Interestingly Lue didn’t coach last night’s game but he was in the Raptors room after the game having a quiet word with Kyle Lowry. Lue, like Chauncey Billups, has been very helpful to Lowry in the past.
QUICK HITS
Some anxious moments for the Cavs as the intros come and go without James answering. A number of concerned looks from his teammates down the tunnel later James emerges. Could have been anything from a late bathroom run to he forgot his special water bottle ... Lost in all the Lowry uproar and another untimely loss was a solid game from rookie
OG Anunoby who did well, and we mean this sincerely, in holding LeBron James to just 27 points and six assists. Anunoby made James work for everything he got.