Lowry getting hungry for more court time

Little by little, possession by possession, we are starting to see the old Kyle Lowry emerge.

You remember him, the guy who drove this train, the guy who shepherded the Toronto Raptors both in good times and bad, always with that huge chip on his shoulder. The guy who attacked the lane against men sometimes a foot taller and outweighing him by as much as 75-100 pounds and basically defied them to stop him.

That guy hasn’t been around so much this year and Lowry knows it. And he’s not fully back yet, but he’s getting there.

Lowry chalks it up to a combination of the team going to a new offensive philosophy and his own attempts to fit in with that philosophy.

There’s also the matter of the Raptors running 12 guys out there on a nightly basis these days and basically eating into the minutes he has normally counted as his own.

In Tuesday’s win in Houston, Lowry played 36 minutes, had 19 points, 10 assists and 10 trips to the free- throw line. That was the second time this year he reached that amount of playing time.

Coming into the game, he was averaging 31 minutes a night, but with Norm Powell out with a hip pointer, head coach Dwane Casey’s rotation was down to 11 and Low- ry’s minutes were back up.

Compared to a year ago, Lowry is averaging about four fewer shots, one fewer three-point attempt and 3.5 fewer free throws per game so far this season in about six fewer minutes than he averaged last season.

Lowry believes all will be right with his game as soon as those minutes get back up to the his normal averages and he expects that time is coming soon, as its only a matter of time before Casey pares down his rotation to the nine or 10 he’ll likely throw out there on a nightly basis the rest of the year.

Monday’s game also saw Lowry get significant time with the second unit and, as he has done in the past, that was when he had the most impact on scoring.

Lowry had nine of his 19 points in the second quarter, the bulk of which he played with Fred VanVleet, Delon Wright, Jakob Poeltl and Pascal Siakam. He scored another five in the first quarter and five more in the third before being shut out in the fourth.

Through it all, Lowry was aggressive — but particularly aggressive in the 9: 52 he played in that second quarter, when he was the focal point of the offence with both DeMar DeRozan and C. J. Miles on the bench. It’s those minutes that have been missing for Lowry most of the year as the Raptors have gone with a five- man secondary unit with Miles as the main shooter and Lowry on the bench.

There’s no question part of the Raptors’ focus this year is keeping Lowry and fellow all- star DeRozan as fresh as possible by limiting minutes. But there’s a balance that needs to be struck there and right now that balance hasn’t been reached.

Lowry is trying to be a good soldier and fall in line with the new team philosophy, but he’s not finding it easy. Being aggressive is a big part of getting back to being who he is, but that’s only part of it.

“A little bit more,” Lowry said when asked if he felt more aggressive Tuesday. “I just got to do me. At the end of the day, I just got to do me. I’m trying to fit in with the offence, but sometimes you got to go outside the box. You gotta think outside the box a little bit, so right now, I mean, I was fitting in a little bit and trying to do the things the team wants, but to me, for me to be more assertive and more effective, I got to do me.”

Lowry left it at that, repeating himself when asked if he meant he had to be a little more selfish. So we’ll leave that for your own interpretation.

Casey was asked what he saw from Lowry in the game that resulted in more trips to the charity stripe.

“He was aggressive and that’s the way he’s got to play,” Casey replied.

As it stands now, Lowry’s scoring average is near his career low. Don’t expect that to last too much longer. Lowry is pretty determined to make sure it won’t.