Gasol gets new role and Lowry is rolling with his outside shot
NEW YORK— Kyle Lowry was drilling three-pointers, gesticulating crazily after slights from officials, both real and imagined, dishing out assists, and pestering anyone he was defending. Being Kyle Lowry, as it were. As Marc Gasol made his first appearance with the Raptors, it was a boisterous night from the veteran point guard — Lowry had five three-pointers and 22 points — that led Toronto to a harder-than-necessary 104-99 win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
In three games since sitting out a Raptors win over the Los Angeles Clippers, Lowry has now made 13 three-pointers in 27 attempts, nearly 50 per cent efficiency.
Danny Green also made four threes on Saturday as the Raptors overcame several sluggish stretches to run their record to 41-16. The Raptors pulled away in the final 90 seconds.
All five Toronto starters scored in double figures: Lowry had 22, Serge Ibaka 15, Green 15, Kawhi Leonard 11 and Pascal Siakam 10.
A new role: Gasol made his Raptors debut with 2:20 left in the first quarter, coming off the bench to replace Ibaka. It was the first time since his rookie year in 2006 that Gasol did not start a game. He had started 762 of 769 games he played in 11 seasons with the Grizzlies.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse said his frontcourt rotation is “very, very fluid” and he may flit between Ibaka and Gasol as starters eventually.
“I think we are just going to see how it goes and play it by ear,” Gasol said. “Whatever’s best for the team.”
Gasol ended up playing about 19 minutes with six rebounds and seven points.
Woeful New York: The Knicks have the NBA’s worst record at 14-45 and have lost 16 in a row overall — the longest losing streak in the league this season. They haven’t won at Madison Square Garden since Dec. 1.
Wing woes: The Raptors lost a fair amount of wing and backcourt depth when they shipped out C.J. Miles and Delon Wright in the Gasol trade. The hope was, and likely still is, that one of Norm Powell or OG Anunoby would emerge as consistent contributors.
Powell and Anunoby went a combined 7-for-16 from the floor Saturday and had no major impact on the game in a combined 31 minutes.
Not Miller time yet: The Raptors were poised to add Malcolm Miller to the roster on a 10-day contract until an arcane section of the league’s collective bargaining agreement made them hold off.
Under the rules, teams cannot add a player on a 10-day unless they have a minimum of 12 players on full NBA deals.
After last week’s flurry of trades that sent out five players with only Marc Gasol coming back, the Raptors are at 10 and need to sign two players for deals to the end of the year before they can give Miller his 10-day contract.
Up next: A Big Apple homeand-away twin bill, sort of. The resurgent Brooklyn Nets are in Toronto on Monday for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.