Hey, so who’s ready for some bad news? And who’s ready to work together to support each other that said news isn’t all that bad and that everything’s going to be OK? Everyone? OK, then let’s proceed.
That right elbow injury that Kyle Lowry sat out with on Wednesday, the one everyone assumed was mostly just a cover for regular rest, even though it looked like he hurt it at the end of the second quarter the game prior? Well, it might be worse than we feared.
Lowry admitted following Monday’s ugly loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder that the elbow has been bothering him some, and that he got it drained after the game. The elbow was wrapped as he spoke to media, and Lowry said he doesn’t believe that rest will help, as the rest in Boston didn’t do anything to alleviate whatever the issue is. Reading the tweets from beat reporters, it sounds as if Lowry anticipates playing on Wednesday when the Atlanta Hawks visit, with the draining, treatment, and a day off Tuesday hopefully sufficing.
At the same time, it’s very clearly bothering him, and he admitted it’s been a problem. Not that he needed to, really. Lowry’s shot 16 for his last 61 over four games, including a 6-of-30 mark from long-range and an uncharacteristic 20-of-34 mark at the line, and it’s been pretty plain to see that something’s awry in his shot. (Dwane Casey called his recent play a concern.) On the other hand, Lowry said he first hurt the elbow back in January against the Orlando Magic (the London, England, game), and his performance has hardly suffered in the time since – he’s averaged 23.8 points on .491/.438/.776 shooting between then and the recent skid.
So, should the Raptors sit Lowry? Despite his belief they shouldn’t, look at his response closely, per the homie Sean Woodley:
I don’t think so. We tried to do the rest, we were precautionary in Boston … then it got hit a couple times and it flared back up. Like I said, tonight we took care of it … we’ve got a day in between (games) to get some treatment and hopefully it goes down and I can get back to my normal self.
He doesn’t believe the rest mattered much…but it flared back up after getting hit. Wouldn’t that suggest that it makes sense to rest him until it’s fully healed to avoid it getting hit again in the meantime? My suggestion would be an emphatic yes, but as always, I’m far more risk averse with these matters than the team and the general majority seem to be. In my mind, nothing matters at this point but the health of the team come playoff time, so letting Lowry tough his way through it – not necessarily risking further injury but slowing or preventing recovery – seems silly to me.
But I don’t make the decisions, and I wasn’t in the locker room for greater context on the injury or Lowry’s own feelings about it. I really don’t see why you’d play him Wednesday in a mostly meaningless game rather than getting him two extra days off for the swelling (or whatever it is) to subside, but again, I’m incredibly risk averse.
DeMarre Carroll non-update update
So, uhh, here’s this.
The Carroll Lowdown is different and more difficult to fully parse out. Appears something went wrong though and return ways off.
— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) March 29, 2016
That is a very small amount of information to go off of, but have at it.
