NBA playoffs: ‘Questionable’ Lowry’s ankle injury adds to Raptor pain
He saw one of his best friends and his most vital teammate writhing in pain on the Quicken Loans Arena floor, clutching his ankle with the Toronto Raptors’ playoff aspirations arguably on the line, and DeMar DeRozan had one immediate thought. “Couldn’t get no worse.” Well, maybe it could. Kyle Lowry, who sprained an ankle seconds into the third quarter of Toronto’s eventual 125-103 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of their NBA playoff series on Wednesday night, spent Thursday afternoon having a deeper examination of the injury and coach Dwane Casey said Lowry is “questionable” for Friday’s Game 3 at the Air Canada Centre.
“Kyle is our driving force, our point guard, our leader,” DeRozan said.
“So for us not to have him anything close to 100 per cent, it would be difficult on us. But the next guy, everybody else, has gotta do something a little bit more to fill whatever void it is he can’t fully do out there on the court.”
Lowry may make some miracle recovery and play in Game 3, or Game 4 on Sunday afternoon, but he was certainly struggling in the immediate aftermath of the injury. He limped gingerly to the interview room podium immediately after the game and said the offending joint was “pretty sore right now,” then muttered an expletive when he was walking away.
“Just sucks to see anybody go down, no matter who it was,” DeRozan said of the incident 30 seconds into the second half of Game 2 when Tristan Thompson of the Cavaliers knocked down Toronto’s Norm Powell, who went crashing into Lowry.
“Just one of them things, when it rains it pours at this point. It was one of them. To see him get up, continue to play, it was refreshing, but now to deal with whatever it is that’s bothering him is gonna be another issue.”
Losing half of their all-star backcourt might be a crippling blow to the Raptors, who would presumably turn to Cory Joseph and Delon Wright to handle Lowry’s duties. That duo was solid when Lowry missed 21 games after February wrist surgery, but taking Toronto’s best three-point shooter out of a lineup that needs more offence will be a monstrous void to fill.
Joseph and Wright are solid, but they can’t replicate Lowry’s shooting, which can loosen up a tough Cleveland defence.
“It’s unfortunate, obviously, when anyone goes out, especially one of our stars. I just think we have that mentality of next man up, just playing hard, as we do when he’s there and we were able to win games,” Joseph said of the regular-season time that Lowry missed.