Lowry puts up sickly effort
Raptors all-star fails to deliver when team needs him most
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Just when it felt like it couldn’t get much worse for the Raptors, Kyle Lowry awoke on Friday with untimely symptoms.
The Raptors’ best player had laboured through the opening two games of the playoffs looking either worn down by the season’s long grind or weighed down by the pressure of the moment. And now, on top of a wonky back that’s been aching for weeks and a bruised shin suffered in a Game 2 debacle, Lowry was also harbouring a hacking cough and a bit of a sniffle.
Still, he pronounced himself “100 per cent healthy,” albeit with a knowing smile before the morning shootaround. “There’s no excuse to be made,” he said. So there he sat in the visitors’ locker room before the game, sipping on a hot beverage, a purple packet of herbal tea at his feet. The tea’s name promised something the Raptors desperately appeared to need: Stress Relief.
Certainly Friday’s Game 3 loss, a 106-99 letdown at the Verizon Center, did little to alleviate the anxiety surrounding the Raptors’ best player. This is Lowry’s first playoff run since he signed a four-year contract worth $48 million (U.S.) last summer. And so far, in the money moments of a franchise-best season, Lowry hasn’t exactly been giving Toronto’s NBAers their money’s worth.
Lowry, who at his world-beating, allstar-starting best has been the engine that drives Toronto’s success, has been stuck in neutral as the Raptors have dug themselves a 3-0 hole in what’s becoming a first-round walkover.
Friday’s 5-for-22 shooting performance only underlined the sad truth about the enormity of No. 7’s struggle. When his team has needed him most, in a crucial game that could have transformed the series from futile to hopeful, Lowry simply couldn’t deliver a marquee-worthy masterpiece. Instead, he produced a third straight dud. In the first two games he was undone by foul trouble. In Game 3, save for some late fireworks that kept the Raptors within a possession in the dying moments, he was simply foul.
And now the Raptors are worthy of yet more mocking from their D.C. foes.
“Sweep the North,” was the slogan going around the arena on Friday.
That, and another “That’s-why-I’mhere” moment from Wizards veteran Paul Pierce, who nailed the three-point dagger that put the Wizards ahead 10599 with 16 seconds to play, is enough to make this look like yet another forgettable spring for Canada’s hoop heads.
“The pressure is always on, but I can’t be out here sulking and moping,” Lowry had said before the game.
“I have to go out here and do my job and play.”
There were, for a while, signs pointing to a breakout game for the Toronto point guard. Lowry’s first drive ended in an offensive board and a Jonas Valanciunas dunk. Lowry hit a three-pointer on his next possession. He had eight points by the third quarter’s end — a series high.
But, by and large, it was another miserable run for Lowry. A typical lowlight: On a fourth-quarter scramble play Lowry drew coverage from Drew Gooden, the lumbering forward. Instead of the obvious play — an aggressive drive — Lowry chose to launch a three-pointer, a miss. That led to a Wizards fast break wherein the player Lowry was supposed to be guarding, John Wall, scored an and-one layup. Lowry is shooting 24 per cent from the field for the series.
Perhaps it was fitting that coach Dwane Casey, in the leadup to the game, had compared post-season basketball to a combat sport. Lowry, at times, looked like he was playing wearing boxing gloves.
“It’s a street fight,” he said. “When they throw their punches at us . . . we’ve got to throw counter-punches.”
But the first quarter looked less like an all-out brawl than it did an all-star game. If the Raptors were ridiculously hot from the field — and DeMar DeRozan reeled off 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting from the field, going 3-for-3 from behind the arc — the Wizards were hotter. Toronto shot 52 per cent for the frame, the home team 58 per cent. It was a showcase of high-tempo basket-trading. And it got Lowry off to a quick start. He made a couple of three-pointers, dished off for a couple more buckets, looked more aggressive than he’d appeared in the opening two games.
The Raptors led 35-33 after 12 minutes. But for Toronto, the issue hasn’t been starting fast — it’s been sustaining success. All season, they’ve struggled to chain together consistent quarters. And Friday night was a case in point. Those 35 points in the first period were followed up by 13 in a sloppier second frame that included five turnovers and plenty of head-shaking shot selection. Another lowlight. Lowry, driving the lane in the second quarter, dished to Tyler Hansbrough. He then ran into Hansbrough and forced a self-inflicted turnover.
To restate the mounting symptoms: A bad back, a bruised shin, a common cold and an occasional case of klutziness. Oh, and also: Feelings of hopelessness, since no NBA team has ever bounced back from a 3-0 series deficit. A cup of tea isn’t nearly strong enough.