Lowry crafts intriguing narrative
Guard separates fact, fiction regarding his move to Heat
Kyle Lowry quickly has separated fact from fiction in his shift to the Miami Heat.
Fact: It’s his team, his pace, his course to chart, the 35-year-old point guard essentially given free rein by coach Erik Spoelstra.
Fiction: The Heat’s culture will determine his course going forward.
“I kind of thought I knew what I was getting into, and that’s why I signed here,” Lowry said after a take-charge performance in Thursday night’s exhibition victory over the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center, when he recorded 10 assists in the first half. “But some of the stuff about the culture, and Spo will say it, some of the stuff is a myth. Some of it is.
“It has been fun. It has been a
smooth, easy transition. It hasn’t been too crazy like people probably think it is. I get those questions all the time. ‘How is it? How is it?’ It’s cool. Great organization, great coaching staff, great team.”
While Lowry largely has let his play do the talking during the preseason, he sat down after the win in Houston and opened up about moving on from the
Toronto Raptors after a championship run there, in order to get back to a win-now mode.
“It’s been pretty smooth,” he said, as the Heat turned their attention to Friday night’s exhibition against the San Antonio Spurs on the back end of their two-game trip. “I’ve got great basketball teammates, and I’ve got a great coaching staff and a
lot of things have been put in my hands, to where they’ve been adapting to me when I’ve had to adapt to them, which shows great respect for what I’m able to do in my basketball skills and me also understanding what they want to do. So it’s a mutual-respect type of thing.”
back and it’s important to him, and we’re excited to have him back.”
Last year, Davis, who contributed 40 tackles and one quarterback hit, helped the Dolphins reduce their yards-allowedper-carry from 4.9 yards to 4.5 yards when he was inserted into the starting lineup on Oct. 18 as Davon Godchaux’s replacement.
The starting job has been his ever since, and the unit went right back to struggling in his absence.
The hope is that he’ll be able to pick up where he left off before the injury, and that the knee injury doesn’t impact his ability to serve as an unmovable pillar on the defensive line.
“He’s looked good,” Flores said of Davis, who will likely be removed from injured reserve on Saturday. “Anytime you take some time off there is a little bit of rust, and I don’t say that in a bad way. It’s like anything. You don’t work out for a long time you come out a little bit more sore.”
As a nose tackle, Davis isn’t an everydown defensive lineman. He primarily plays on running downs, and if there is one area outside of third-down defense the Dolphins feel like they need to see improvement, it’s defending the run.
Every team the Dolphins have played has rushed for more than 100 yards, and the Dolphins have allowed three tailbacks — New England’s Damien Harris (100 on 23 carries), Las Vegas’ Peyton Barber 111 and a touchdown on 23 carries), and Indianapolis’ Jonathan Taylor (103 and a touchdown on 16 carries) — to produce 100-yard rushing performances.
The hope is that Davis’ return puts a stop to the run-game leakage.
“He’s a big, massive, strong guy,” said linebacker Jerome Baker, who leads the Dolphins with 27 tackles.
“Just the pure mass of him, he takes up essentially three people,” Baker said when discussing Davis, whose main job is to keep him protected from blockers, allowing the team’s leading tackler for the past two seasons to roam freely. “It’s him, and two other guys that usually have to block him. You can tell it’s a big difference, a big guy down there. It’s hard to move him.”
Without a presence like Davis commanding a double-team, the opposing’s offensive line can assign a guard or the center to get to the second level and block Miami’s linebackers.
On too many instances that has been the case on the big runs the Dolphins have allowed this season.
Fortunately for the Dolphins, the Buccaneers sparingly run the football, and as a result average just 72 rushing yards per game and 3.7 yards per carry. But Miami can’t afford for Tampa Bay to become another team that uses the Dolphins defense to juice up its run game. That’s where Davis comes in. “Double-teams are going to happen,” Baker predicts about Davis’ return. “It’s different when it’s a double-team and the guy is not moving. We definitely need that, and we’re excited to have him back.”