Lowry has timing down on two-for-one
On a night where the Toronto Raptors ensured they would head into the NBA all-star break with the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, there was seemingly little to be happy about.
Little until Kyle Lowry’s stunning two-for-one in the dying seconds of the first half was brought up. There’s no question the Raptors weren’t happy with just holding on for a 115-112 win over Miami. They did not like their disposition to end the game and were knocking themselves for letting it get as close as it did.
But when the subject turned to Lowry finding a way to swing the game four points in the Raptors’ favour in the final 30.7 seconds of the half, even the most ticked-off Raptor not named Dwane Casey managed to crack a smile.
Lowry’s penchant for the twofor-one is well known in the Raptors locker-room, but on Tuesday he was at his otherworldly best.
He took an inbound at midcourt, allowing the ball to roll all the way over centre. As a defender approached the ball, Lowry bent down to retrieve it and seemingly in one motion launched a threepointer that found the mark. That was the easier part. The Heat would go down and score two points on a 10-footer from Hassaan Whiteside, leaving just 5.4 seconds on the clock.
DeMar DeRozan wound up with the ball on the left wing and threw a last-second, no-hope pass to Lowry at the top of the three-point arc just before time expired.
Lowry caught the ball and launched an ugly two-handed overhead shot at the rim just before the horn blew. The arc of the ball was high and true and found the bottom of the net.
Lowry attempts one of these plays every time he can. But to get a pair of three pointers on both ends of the two-for-one is rare — and Lowry was clearly tickled to have pulled it off.
Just one more reason Lowry makes the game a little more interesting than most.