ICYMI from Raptors Republic
Kyle Lowry searching for answers amid frustrating shooting slump | Raptors Republic
A security staffer rebounded for him for a time, but Lowry was mostly content to collect his own make, jab-step, fire a corner three, collect his make, pull-up from the elbow, collect his make. Lowry’s not alone in his battle through what can now be considered an extended slump – teammates decidedly have his back and are adamant he’ll come through it, and soon – but as the cold stretch turns from physical to mental, the search for answers can become isolating, no matter how much support there is.
“I tell him all the time, good or bad, I got the utmost confidence in him,” DeMar DeRozan, who dealt with a slump in the first round himself, said. “I don’t care if he miss 15 shots in a row, I’mma stand behind him just like if he making 15 shots in a row. It’s gonna come around. It just sucks that we all had to go through this at this point in time of the season.”
DeRozan wasn’t out there shooting with Lowry, but he probably would have been, had Lowry asked. But this is the point guard’s struggle. Lowry wants to be dominating, and seems acutely aware that he is the team’s beating heart. He insists that the elbow he had drained in March, which limited extension on his shot initially, isn’t the root cause, and his late-night workout would seem to confirm his health is fine. And despite some arbitrary endpoints suggesting he was cold late in the season, too, depending on where you draw the line, he was anything but – he shot 41 percent on 39 3-point attempts in five April games, for example.
He is Toronto during All-Star Weekend cold now.
Game 1 Post-Game Podcast – No worries, we got this…I think | Raptors Republic
We’re strangely calm and hardly melodramatic after the Raptors drop Game 1 at home to the Heat. After all, losing Game 1’s kind of our thing.
Articles from the Internets
Kyle Lowry can’t lose his confidence or the Raptors are done | The Defeated
It’s one thing for Lowry to struggle, it’s another for him to lose confidence. That has me worried the most.
Lowry insists that he’s healthy, but that can’t be true — not after he shot 2–11 on uncontested field goals in Game 1. Reporters spotted Lowry with a lump on his elbow last week, Lowry took some really hard spills in Game 7, and he‘s primarily dribbling with his left hand. Something’s not right with that right elbow. A healthy Lowry wouldn’t miss so many point-blank shots.
What’s more concerning is Lowry’s waning confidence. Lowry is always playing at 100 percent, so in the rare moments where he’s passive, it’s really apparent.
He was passive in Game 1. In the first half, Lowry hardly ever looked to score, passing up chances for layups to set up drive-and-kick looks for teammates. That was a fine strategy until the Heat realized he wasn’t a threat, and opted to not sent help in the second quarter. Without the will to shoot or an open target to hit, stagnation set into the Raptors’ attack.
Without the jumpshot, Lowry is stuck in a predicament. He can’t score at the rim when Hassan Whiteside has 14 inches on him, and Goran Dragic is fairly big for a point guard so post-ups won’t go anywhere. His only option is to rekindle the jumper.
Knowing that his shot wasn’t falling, Lowry deferred to DeRozan, who had a fine game with 22 points on 10–22 shooting. But that presents a problem: DeRozan can’t beat the Heat on his own. It’s ridiculous to expect DeRozan to win four of the next six games by getting hot on midrange jumpers.
Watching Kyle Lowry, the Raptors’ All-Star Guard Who Looks Nothing Like Himself | VICE Sports
This game, a 102-96 overtime win for Miami, was dumber and less plausible than the ending of Dexter. Inbounding the ball seemed like a herculean task. DeMar DeRozan hit two shots while getting fouled in the span of 36 seconds in the fourth quarter, and missed the free throw both times. The Heat missed dunks on back-to-back possessions. Miami shot 73 percent from 3-point range, while the Raptors shot 24 percent. The Heat played the first half as if they were hammered, while the Raptors merely looked buzzed. Terrence Ross was really good. It goes on.
Weirdest of all, of course, was Lowry’s night. Lowry hit just 3-of-13 shots on the evening. One was fairly conventional, a layup. The other, his first of the night, was a leaner he did not even want to take, as he was looking for the foul. The final was a halfcourt heave that miraculously fell. Of course, it looked like Lowry stepped out of bounds before taking the shot. Even the weirdest thing in this weird game could not be the normal kind of weird. It had to be the complicated kind of weird.
“As soon as it left his hand,” Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said, “I think everybody in the building kind of had an idea that it would go.”
No they didn’t! Lowry looks shaken, and it is startling. Lowry has sworn that his elbow, which bothered him at various points in the second half of the season, is not an issue right now. His insistence on taking shots following the game instead of resting and icing it lends credence to his words.
That, however, is scary for Raptors fans. That means the struggles are less explainable.
“It’s definitely a feel, just trying to get the touch back,” Lowry said. “I don’t know where it’s at. It’s kind of mind-boggling right now. It’s frustrating. I’m not going to shy away from the criticism or anything. I’m going to continue to be aggressive, shoot shots and take the onus. I know I’m not playing well at all. We got out of that one series with me not playing well, shooting the ball well. But we’ve got to get out of this next series. I have to play better, shoot the ball better, score the ball better.
“Right now (there are) definitely a thousand different things going on (in my mind) because of how I’m… shooting the ball.”
Heat point guard Goran Dragic was all over Lowry in Game 1. –Photo by Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
What do you even do about that?
Kyle Lowry and the Raptors are losing the mental game vs. Heat | CBSSports.com
It is bizarre and fascinating to watch Lowry play like this. During the regular season, he was arguably one of the 10 best players in the league. He averaged a career-high 21.2 points with a true shooting percentage of 57.8 percent — the only starting point guard more efficient was Stephen Curry. He started in the All-Star Game for the second year in a row and led the Raptors to a franchise-record 56 wins.
This was supposed to be the year that Lowry and his team put their playoff struggles behind them. Two years ago, Lowry shot 40.4 percent in the Raptors’ seven-game series against the Brooklyn Nets. Last season, he shot just 31.6 percent in their four consecutive losses to the Washington Wizards. Lowry spent last summer getting into the best shape of his life and showed up at media day saying he knew how poorly he played in the postseason. He transformed into “Skinny Kyle” because it gave him a better chance of avoiding injuries and sustaining his play for an entire season.
Lowry said his issues are not mechanical or related to the elbow injury he admitted was bothering him in March. He has has been in a slump for a month and a half, but Tuesday was different. The misses affected him, in terms of his confidence and his decision-making. He owned up to this when he met the media in between two postgame shooting sessions, and he did the same the next day.
“I know what the pressure is myself, that I put on myself,” Lowry said. “And I know we won’t advance if I don’t play better.”
Perhaps the pressure itself is the problem. “It’s just here,” Toronto forward Luis Scola said, pointing to his temple.
The solution for Kyle Lowry will come from Kyle Lowry: Arthur | Toronto Star
Not to overstate it, but it feels like Lowry’s whole life has led to this crisis. In AAU ball he wasn’t the greatest shooter but he was an attacking bull, a true Philly player, and his confidence never wavered. In the NBA he fought to be a starter with a parade of teammates, including Miami’s Goran Dragic, but he persevered to become an all-star. His confidence propelled him here, even as he needed to be believed in.
“It just hurts me, because it’s unfair,” longtime teammate Luis Scola said. “He just shouldn’t be going through this, and I’m rooting so much for things to change around . . . I was with Kyle when Kyle was almost out of the rotation in Houston. He (had) come back from an injury and he was barely playing and that was probably the lowest point, after his rookie year when he got hurt. And I was there. I have seen him going through up and downs. He had up and downs a lot of times.”
A few minutes earlier, Scola pointed to his own temple and said, “It’s just here. And this is his strength.”
Lowry is trying to grin through it, trying to find the humour. He jokes that he’s the worst shooting player in NBA playoff history, so he has that going for him. He is disarmingly honest, saying it does run through his head as he rises to take a shot, as he even considers shooting. Every interview is a couch.
“What else could I do?” Lowry asked. “Why being anything I’m not? For me to be honest, I’m always truthful with you all . . . for the most part, except for when I’m injured. But what else am I going to do? I know the pressures I put on myself. I know we won’t advance if I don’t play better. I live with this. This is what I do. I have to play better for us to be a good team to win games.”
Scola acting as voice of reason during Lowry’s playoff pains | Sportsnet.ca
Enter Scola. He’s known Lowry since he was a kid. They were teammates on some very promising Houston Rockets teams. He saw a fiery, tempestuous Lowry break through as an NBA starter in 2010-11 and then lose that job to Goran Dragic (now of the Heat) the following year, a tumult that precipitated Lowry requesting a trade and being dealt to the Raptors in the summer of 2012.
Scola has seen everything, and he’s seen Lowry go through worse.
“That was probably his lowest point, and I was there. I have seen him go through some ups and downs, he had ups and downs a lot of times,” said Scola. “I don’t feel like this is a unique situation. This is something that happens all the time, with a lot of players, with everybody. ”
“But it’s happening to him and I feel bad. I don’t want it, but I know it’s going to change. I have complete confidence.”
And in this Scola is likely correct. Lowry swears he’s healthy and his struggles aren’t due to his elbow problem from earlier this year. If that’s the case then eventually someone who shot 39 per cent from three over the course of a full season won’t shoot 16 per cent from deep forever.
But he’s got to start somewhere. And while Scola was preaching patience and support, teammate DeMarre Carroll was arguing for urgency and self-reliance as the Raptors try to avoid going down 0-2 in the series.
Raptors’ Carroll says Lowry needs to ‘man up’ | Toronto Sun
Lowry is searching and, true to his bulldog personality, he likely won’t give up that search until the season ends or the slump does.
At this point digging himself out is his only option.
DeMarre Carroll, who followed Lowry to the podium Wednesday afternoon was asked what kind of words of encouragement he could offer his teammate. But like only he could be, Carroll bluntly suggested words might not be the best approach right now.
“You can (offer encouragement), but you know, sometimes you just have to look yourself in the mirror. You have to man up,” Carroll said. “You have to be like, ‘I’m the Kyle Lowry that played the 82 games, All-star.’ You can say a lot to encourage him, but I feel like Kyle as the individual and a competitor, who he is, he has to look in the mirror and say ‘I’m Kyle Lowry.’”
Lowry doesn’t really care what gets said about him in the media or what shooting marks for futility his personal skid hits. His goal is simple.
“I want to win,” he said. “That’s all that matters. I want to win the series. That’s all that matters. Shooting well, passing well, I want to win the series. No ifs, ands, buts.”
But for that to happen, he’s going to have to score.
ICYMI: This was Kyle Lowry at 1 a.m. after Game 1. #WeTheNorth
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Raptors Keeping Calm, Focus Towards Game 2 | Toronto Raptors
“Watching the film, it’s not as bad as it looks,” Lowry said. “You see things like you could have done this better or we could have done that better. I could have done this better. It’s always a learning tool. The good thing is it’s a new day and we have a day to prepare and try to get one game. That’s the only way we can do it – one game at a time.”
The Raptors started their first-round series against the Indiana Pacers with a loss in Game 1. They didn’t expect to sweep the Pacers, but that first loss in the series provided an opportunity for veteran teammates to remind guys in the locker room that the only way to approach the postseason is to focus in on each game as it comes. Through that series, Luis Scola, DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph stressed the importance of playing with composure when playing from behind in a series. In Tuesday’s loss to the Heat, Scola noticed the body language shift when Miami went ahead by three points.
“Yesterday they make this little run, they get up three and our whole body language, oooh,” Scola said. “What were we expecting? We got the game totally under control, we were playing well, we can’t let that [shift in body language] happen. We’ve got to be okay.
“You play little by little,” Scola continued. “Play by play, you hold on to the push. You deal with the loss that you have and then eventually you build your win and you build your momentum, you build your run and your run has to be bigger and better than their run. That’s the way the game is played.”
Heat expecting Raptors’ Kyle Lowry to bounce back | Toronto Sun
“No,’’ said Spoelstra when asked if Lowry’s play will necessitate any change to Miami’s game plan. “What you have to have is great respect for an all-star, a player that puts tremendous amount of pressure on your defence and he may have a great response.”
The Heat don’t expect Lowry to miss shots, but he’s missed too many for anyone to think that something dramatic will change in Game 2 on Thursday. Perhaps it will and Lowry will rediscover his form, but it seems highly unlikely the Raptors can win this series if their point guard isn’t scoring.
“If he happens to have a great response, we have to have one that’s even greater,’’ said Spoelstra.
Lowry is an overall better point guard than Kemba Walker, who is more of a scoring guard, but it was Charlotte’s dynamic backcourt player who helped turn the opening-round series in favour of the Hornets. But in Game 7, Walker struggled and the Heat won in a cakewalk. He wasn’t alone, but it does underscore the importance of point play and guard play in general.
Miami won the battle on the boards against the Raptors and was efficient on offence for longer stretches, but the defining theme in the aftermath of Game 1 was guard play and how Miami’s backcourt dominated Toronto’s tandem, 50-29.
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Raptors will try to pick up the pace against Heat | Toronto Star
“They wanted more of a deliberate half-court, where they can load up and that type of thing, so we want to make sure we get some more movement,” the coach said. “I didn’t think we moved well (in Game 1) once we did get in the half-court. We’ve got to get our bodies moving and the ball moving a little bit more to the weak side.”
The drawback, of course, is if the Heat can stifle Toronto’s desire to create a quick tempo and get into a slower game, it creates interesting defensive matchups for the Raptors, to say the least.
Patterson, for instance, may find himself far out of his comfort zone.
“In these playoffs, going against those veterans, with more guys like Joe Johnson at the four — sometimes I even had to guard Dwyane Wade — and just the variety of guys I have to guard . . . I have to get into the ball, I have to force my man to drive to the basket,” he said.
“I have to trust my feet, trust my teammates. If my man does go by me, just trust my teammates are going to be there and trust that our defence is going to pull through, whether it’s a big helping out or whether it’s a switch, whatever it may be.”
But the benefit, as Casey sees it, is at the offensive end. He figures this group has more discipline than the shot-happy, fast-paced group that crashed and burned last season.
“We want to get the ball in the paint, kick it out then for a three but we want to keep the pace going,” he said.
“But the best way to do that is to get stops. A smarter pace than last year, a smarter pace than coming out and just jack up a quick shot, no-pass three and the-ball-doesn’t-attack-the-paint three. We want to keep that pace and hopefully that plays to our advantage.”
Plucking positives from a wild and disappointing Game 1 loss for the Raptors | Raptors HQ
Casey’s decision to alter his starting five for a third time in these playoffs was a mild surprise, but it made sense. Miami is almost exclusively a four-out team, and having DeRozan, Norman Powell and Carroll manning the two-through-four positions allowed the Raptors to have a pair of strong on-ball defenders to tackle Wade and Joe Johnson while hiding DeRozan on Luol Deng.
“Defensively I thought the match-ups were better for us,” said Casey of his funky new starting unit. ” I thought the tempo, the pace of the game that it created was good for us. We gotta continue that. We gotta continue to push the pace, makes or misses, I think that’s an area where we have to take advantage of.”
Toronto has excelled by playing a plodding style this year, but against a Miami team that is short on depth and long on years, making the game a little more frenzied with a small starting unit might be an interesting wrinkle to test out against the Heat.
Toronto scored just 18 points in the opening frame, and the revamped starters were even in 16 minutes played together on the night, but it’s a look worth going back to given how rock solid it was defensively. With the feel-out game out of the way, some of the fluid ball movement the Raptors displayed in the first quarter might start translating into a higher conversion rate.
“There was no rhythm to it ,” said Casey of the games’ early going. “We wanted to create a pace and tempo. We got a little frenetic, we took some tough three point shots that I thought were a little deep, that would could have got a better shot on the weak side.”
Toronto created 42 potential assists in Game 1 per NBA.com, up from their average of 39 in seven games against the Pacers and markedly better than their season average of 35.3. Much of that enhanced ball-swinging was initiated by the new starting five.
Heat had to headlock JV to slow him down last night #wethenorth #rtz
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If reputations are made in playoffs, Lowry’s is mud right now: Feschuk | Toronto Star
There’s still plenty of time for a redemptive turnaround. But until Lowry authors one, there’s a disturbing pattern emerging. Lowry is shooting 31% from the field in these playoffs. He shot 32% in last year’s.
A year ago, Lowry was granted a relative free pass because the popular perception had him physically exhausted from carrying a team during a season that saw DeMar DeRozan miss 22 games. Back then the organization fingered various Toronto role players as not built for the rigours of the NBA’s championship tournament. So GM Masai Ujiri added depth pieces of significance. And if the results don’t change, there’ll be those who draw the conclusion: Maybe, as franchise-propelling engines go, it’s Lowry who’s just not built for this.
“In the regular season, a slump like this is a pebble on your back. Now, it’s a boulder,” said Jon Barry, the former NBAer who’ll be working as an analyst for Games 2 and 3 on ESPN in the U.S. “Everybody watches the playoffs. This is the stage that everybody wants. Hey, sometimes you forget your lines. But if the great actors are forgetting their lines — it’s a bad time for that to happen.”
It seems everybody has advice for the stammering man in the spotlight. Coach Dwane Casey figures he just needs to keep shooting. (“We’re not going to change the offence, or anything like that,” Casey said).
Forward DeMarre Carroll says he should “man up” — macho code for “quit feeling sorry for yourself.” In that that vein, Scola, though he insists he’s sure Lowry will turn things around, said Lowry ought to straighten up his hangdog body language. It says “he’s beaten,” Scola said.
Free Association: Discussing the health of Kyle Lowry and Chris Bosh | Sportsnet.ca
At the five minute mark JD and Donnovan break down the furious comeback and Kyle Lowry’s continued shooting slump.
Twenty-nine minutes into the podcast Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald and 790 The Ticket joins into to talk about Hassan Whiteside’s future pay day and Chris Bosh’s on going health saga.
Heat’s Game 2 concerns go beyond knees of Wade, Whiteside | Sun Sentinel
Spoelstra said the Heat spent Wednesday cleaning up some of the issues that led to Tuesday’s harrowing finish after his team had built a 10-point fourth-quarter lead.
But he said fouling Raptors guard Kyle Lowry before he could loft his 39-foot game-tying 3-pointer at the regulation buzzer was not one of them.
Spoelstra, though, said the plan was not to allow such a running start for Lowry.
“I told Justise [Winslow] we don’t want a team to be able to roll the ball and get momentum. And that was probably our error there,” he said. “We’re a team that will play it out, but we would like to put more pressure and make a turn of the ball happen. But I’ve seen too many Kyle Lowry late-game situations where he somehow finds a way to turn that into a bail-out foul.”
While it appeared Lowry may have stepped on the sideline before draining his shot, the NBA’s officiating report issued Wednesday noted, “Upon reviewing all available video feeds, there is no evidence that Lowry (TOR) stepped out of bounds.”
Spoelstra said he did not request a review.
“I think our bench did. I did not at that point,” he said. “It just happened so quickly. And I was focused on getting our huddle right from there.”
Is struggling Raptor Kyle Lowry playing hurt? | Toronto Sun
How else to explain his shooting in the post-season? And now to explain his reluctance to shoot, save for the half-court prayer he hit that sent Game 1 to overtime, that has changed the way the Raptors have to play in the post-season.
In the regular season, Lowry shot 38.4% from 20 feet out and longer. And he shot 38% from three-point land. But in the seven games against Indiana, Lowry shot 20% from 20 feet and out — 10 of 50 — and 43 of those were shot from three-point land. He made seven of those — an astoundingly low 16.3% .
Lowry scored just seven minutes — hitting on 3 of 13 shots — taking few jumpers, in the Raptors’ 102-96 overtime loss to the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series. Miami outscored Toronto 12-6 in OT.
In the opener against Miami, Lowry only took four first-half shots, missed all four of them, three of them jumpers, and Lowry finished the half with no points and just one assist.
The Raptors need the combination of Lowry and DeMar DeRozan to succeed. DeRozan had a sharp first quarter with eight points, but didn’t score in six minutes in the second. Without a basket from either Lowry or DeRozan in the second quarter, the Raps still managed to outscore the Heat 25-23.
Lowry did not take as few shots as he did in Game 1 in any game during the season. Even in the first round against Indiana, he took 14 shots a game.
ASK IRA: Is the result the only thing that should matter in Game 1? | Sun Sentinel
Q: Considering that the Heat are now running again on all cylinders, I felt the need to point out the obvious: Erik Spoelstra will tear apart the Raptors’ offense and defense. That’s what he does best. Toronto is a tough team, no doubt, but with Kyle Lowry hurting, it will be tough to battle Miami’s strong guards in Dwyane Wade, Goran Dragic, Josh Richardson, and now Joe Johnson. Charlotte was a tough team because of the matchups. Hassan Whiteside will have a field day at center because they aren’t stacked there. DeMar DeRozan will be covered by Justise Winslow, so he will be limited for sure. — Javier.
A: First, there are no easy series at this stage of the playoffs. I do agree that Erik and his scouting/video staff have proven exceptional at breaking down opponents. But the Raptors have plenty of talent, more than the Hornets. And DeMar DeRozan is arguably the best guard in this series, so I wouldn’t overstate any Heat superiority in the backcourt. As for center, I would argue that Toronto has more with its tag team of Jonas Valanciunas and Bismack Biyombo than the Hornets did with Cody Zeller and a clearly laboring Al Jefferson. As for Winslow as a defensive stopper, I believe you also could see him taking defensive shifts against Lowry, as well. I do like that the Heat can come with a pair of perimeter stoppers in Winslow and Luol Deng, although the Raptors could claim the same with DeMarre Carroll and Norman Powell. Nothing will be easy about this one.
Raptors plan to keep closer eye on Heat’s Dragic | Toronto Sun
Lowry’s former Houston Rockets teammate Goran Dragic toyed with him at times Tuesday en route to a game-high 26 points. The Heat shot 44.9% from the field, including a blistering 8-for-11 from beyond the three-point line.
The Raptors know the hot outside shooting won’t keep up and are happy with only allowing 11 outside chances, but want to shore things up elsewhere, particularly on the inside.
“That was a focus (in practice Wednesday),” forward DeMarre Carroll said of keeping Dragic, in particular, out of the paint.
“It wasn’t a focus coming (into the series). But it’s a definite focus now. He opened up our eyes. We have to prepare for him, just like we have to prepare for Dwyane Wade and Joe Johnson. I think we’ve got to prepare for everything, one through five, on their team. Because they’re kind of similar to us in some ways. They all can score.”
Lowry’s is taking the match-up with Dragic personally, but said he wasn’t frustrated trying to contain the Slovenian’s herky-jerky attacking style.
“No, I don’t think he’s frustrating to guard, he just played really well and that’s what he can do,” Lowry told Postmedia following his session with the media.
“I think we focused more on defence than anything else today. For me (specifically), it’s more offence, the media and everyone is focused on my offence, but as a team, we’re focused on our defence,” he said.
Hyde: Goran Dragic spits teeth, blackens eye — and finally finds game for Heat | Sun Sentinel
“It’s funny, I’ve got a lot but only on the left side of my face,” he says. “Four, five, six stitches at a time. Only one really bad one. I bumped heads with Mo Williams in Portland …”
” … and needed 13 stitches outside and eight inside.”
So the black eye Dragic received Tuesday night in the Game 1 win against Toronto? Dragic didn’t even know when he got it. Nor does he really care.
“If I don’t have a black eye, I’m not really playing,” he said.
He has an unusual NBA game. He’s a contact point guard, one who wades inside against the tallest timber and doesn’t score with speed or athleticism so much as a quirky blend of toughness and old-fashioned shot making.
Largely irrelevant Raptors can stick it to NBA, LeBron with series win over Heat | Toronto Sun
The NBA is a league of cool kids and superstars and the Raptors have yet to show themselves as being cool enough or superstar enough to matter anywhere but here.
“That’s fine,” said Dwane Casey, who had already been informed of LeBron’s words by Wednesday afternoon.
Nothing stays quiet in the NBA, the league that has always been part basketball, part gossip. Everybody talks about everybody everything.
The thing with the Raptors, though, down one game to the Miami Heat, is that nobody talks much about them at all. Most of the time, they have yet to matter.
“Nobody respects us,” said Casey. “Everybody has written us off. The people in the locker room over there are the most important people to believe that … Our guys should take offence (spelled with a Canadian ‘C’ — to what’s not being said about them).
“You have to do it, “ said the coach, meaning win. “This year, next year, year after that. You build a program. People are looking at us from six, seven, eight, 10 years ago. We’re a growing program. You have to earn that respect. You earn that by winning year after year.”
You don’t earn that by losing the first game of every playoff series in every playoff year. You don’t earn that when you are 0-and-5 in playoff opening games at home. You don’t earn that when you have two apparent stars, and one is making fun of himself for the fact he has the worst shooting percentage in playoff history and the other can’t seem to string together two great quarters, let alone two great games. This is run-your-hands-together material for the local supporters who have mastered in rubbing their hands together over the years.
No, the answer is not less Kyle Lowry | TSN
There shouldn’t even be a question. The Raptors are better with their best player in the lineup and the idea that they could compete in this series without Lowry is wishful thinking, to put in generously.
Obviously, their chances of bouncing back from the Game 1 defeat and making a run at the Heat increase significantly if Lowry breaks out of his funk. He says his elbow is fine and there’s nothing wrong with his mechanics but also joked, “I’m always truthful with y’all, for the most part, except for when I’m injured”, so who knows. Whether the problem is a physical one or not, clearly there’s a mental side to it that Lowry is desperately trying to figure out.
“It’s crazy,” said the two-time all-star following Wednesday’s practice. “It’s mind boggling to me. Dude, how are you not making these shots? For me, I go into the games like I’m about to go [off] and we are going to win. Then I miss a shot and it’s like, ‘Ok’. Then I miss another shot and that’s when it’s like, ‘Alright, I got to try and do something different’.
“Maybe my first shot needs to be a free throw or a layup. I have to figure out ways to just build the confidence. Get a layup, just see the ball go through the hole at some point. Just a fluke shot or a free throw, something to get it going.”
Lowry was on the main court of the Air Canada Centre taking shots by himself until 1:15 AM Wednesday morning, over two hours after Tuesday’s game came to an end. He wrapped up once he started to get tired. Lowry’s a smart guy, almost too smart for his own good sometimes and, in this case, he may be spending too much time in his head. Through years of hard work, Lowry’s turned himself into a shooter but that’s far from all he is. He’s a lot of things, which is what makes him so valuable to the Raptors and while almost all of his teammates are sugarcoating it – telling him to hang in there, assuring him it will just come around – give the candid DeMarre Carroll credit for reminding him of who he is, who he needs to be.
Lowry works out until the wee hours | Toronto Sun
The extra work set off a bit of a social media frenzy, with Charles Barkley & Co., and ESPN also talking about it. Lowry didn’t pay attention.
“I’m not doing it for (attention or praise), I’m doing it for myself. I work hard, no matter what. I’ve done it a few times this season it’s nothing new for us. It’s the playoffs, people are seeing I’m struggling. I’m not doing it for any particular person but myself,” he said.
Frustratingly, Lowry said he was making most of his shots on the court by himself. He hopes it will carry over.
“It was being out there having time to reflect on things about the game I love. Done that countless times in North Philly,” he said. “I’ve had a few struggles like this in my NBA career, but nothing this big. What makes it worse was the playoffs. (Raptors media relations chief Jim LaBumbard) showed me I’m the worst shooting player ever in the playoffs. I’ll take that award, take something with it. It’s life. It’s a basketball game, I know I can shoot better than 31%.”
Kelly: Postgame theatre isn’t helping Kyle Lowry find answers | The Globe and Mail
He’s got smarter. Lowry’s excuse these days is that he has no excuse.
That’s the reason the fan base has not yet begun to devour him. It’s hard to knock a guy when he keeps beating you to it.
But at some point very soon, it will get old.
Lowry may have begun to stumble over that fuzzy line when he noted wryly that he is trolling the NBA’s statistical ocean floor.
“[Raptors PR boss Jim LaBumbard] just showed me that I’m the worst shooting playoff player ever, in history,” Lowry said, to general mirth in the room. “I’ll take that award. I mean, it’s an award. It’s something.”
Oh, yeah. It’s something.
And if you buy that he just figured that out as he entered the room, we need to talk about some attractive investment opportunities that I can hook you up with for a small fee.
When it’s convenient for them, professional athletes want to be just like the rest of us: ‘Hey, we have bad runs. Things go wrong for us, too.’ Lowry loves coming back to the idea of being “a kid again,” which he did once more on Wednesday.
The problem is that he is not like the rest of us, and he certainly isn’t a kid. Playing basketball for a living may be fun, but that’s not the point of it. It’s work.
Lowry is paid a frankly ludicrous amount of money to put a ball through a hoop. The expectation that you be able to do so should necessarily be higher on him than on some random schlub at an insurance company who needs to get his paperwork in by the close of the fiscal year. Much, much higher.
Kyle Lowry’s Halfcourt Shot at the Buzzer Nearly Broke Math | numberFire
According to our algorithms, the Raptors had a 60.97% chance of winning this series going into Game 1. If Lowry’s miracle shot had led to a win, that number would’ve gone even higher. Instead, with the Heat stealing the first game on the road, we now have them favored at 59.62%.
No matter who wins this series, though, the time Lowry nearly broke math with a halfcourt shot at the buzzer will likely live on as its most interesting footnote.
What’s wrong with Kyle Lowry, and can he fix the Raptors in time? | Ball Don’t Lie – Yahoo Sports
Looking back, Lowry’s shot selection was a hodgepodge of contested long jumpers, off-balance albeit open 3-point tries, running lobs before he ever got to the paint and forced attempts to beat the clock. It was a mess. A wild long 2 with Dragic nearby and that halfcourt miracle made up two of his three makes.
It’s been 15 games since his last effective shooting night in a playoff victory — a 36-point effort against the Brooklyn Nets on April 30, 2014 — and his shot selection wasn’t all that different. Lowry just made a whole lot of contested long 2’s and off-balance 3’s in an 11-for-19 performance that included 6-of-9 shooting from 3. The one marked difference was his willingness to attack the basket, which speaks to his confidence opposite a paint protected by Andray Blatche and Mirza Teletovic rather than Whiteside.
As simplified as it might sound, we might have to consider that Lowry is a generously listed 6-foot point guard who may not be as effective in the playoffs, when defenses are better, their intensity is higher and game plans are specifically designed to stop the other team’s All-Star performers. We now have a 32-game sample size, and he’s shooting 34.4 percent in his playoff career. Only Bob Cousy (34.2 percent) was a worse shooter among guards with that much postseason experience. Again, it’s been 50 years.
The lone time Lowry even entered the paint for an attempt in Game 1 against Miami came midway through the fourth quarter, when he was working off the ball in a lineup that featured fellow guards Cory Joseph and DeMar DeRozan, along with wing DeMarre Carroll and big man Jonas Valanciunas. That’s when Lowry beat the rookie Richardson backdoor for a crafty layup. So, is that a way to get him going?
Thoughts on Lowry’s struggles, Green’s greatness | TSN
KYLE LOWRY (Raptors): I think back to my career as a coach and dealing with players who sometimes would look for reasons or excuses for why they were failing instead of just looking in the mirror and saying, “It’s on me. I own it and I’ve got to fix it.” Lowry is struggling big time and I can see by his body language that he’s really fighting himself and searching. I admire and respect his approach. He’s not making any excuses. Lowry is going to put in the work and try to fix it. Obviously, he needs to play a lot better for the Raptors to have a legitimate chance to beat a very talented Miami Heat team. That being said, his struggles are a reminder that as great as these NBA players are, they’re also human and have to learn to deal with failure like the rest of us mere mortals. I totally get that it’s only a game, but you have to remember that this is Lowry’s profession and his livelihood. It’s a big part of his persona, so not playing well has to be killing him. The bottom line is he cares very deeply and he’s trying. He can’t let his shooting woes affect his overall game because he still impacts his team positively in so many other ways. I saw a little bit of doubt creeping into his overall game for the first time on Tuesday night. That can’t happen. Lowry is too good a player to get that far down on himself. This isn’t an incurable disease we’re dealing with here — it can and will be fixed. I believe he will do everything in his power to try and get back on track. He paid the price this past off-season, getting himself into excellent shape. The success he had in the regular season was both earned and deserved. Lowry has to continue to pay that price and believe. It’s time to play like the ‘Bulldog of Bay Street’ again. Let it all hang out. Lowry is too good and has come too far. Now is no time to surrender.
Buzzer-beater aside, Kyle Lowry is struggling. | Sports on Earth
Despite Lowry’s performance, the Raptors have plenty to be encouraged about after losing another Game 1 at home. No longer working in the shadows of Paul George, DeMar DeRozan looked comfortable on the floor against Miami, getting to his spots, scoring 22 points on 9-of-22 shooting. Jonas Valanciunas was stellar in his low post matchup against Hassan Whiteside, scoring 24 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Terrence Ross, who has spent three postseasons appearing lost on the floor, scored a career playoff high 19 points. The Raptors defense forced 20 turnovers, and despite Lowry’s poor performance, had a chance in overtime to steal the first game of the series.
Outside of Cleveland, any matchup in the East is up for grabs. Like their first round series against the Pacers, the Raptors just needed to put together a five-minute stretch in the second half against the Heat to come back from a double-digit deficit in the fourth. Lowry’s only made three in the game was a half court heave at the end of regulation that swished through the basket, sending the already half empty home crowd into a brief moment of hysteria.
Even though the Raptors lost in overtime, 102-96, they know they can compete with this Heat team. They also know the playoffs are about superstars, and how they carry their teams. Regardless of the season, Lowry has not performed up to standards.
“We know he’s not shooting the ball well,” Casey said. “It’s like a hitter. Hitters go through slumps. We have to believe in him. He’s going to come out of it.”
But what happens if he doesn’t? Casey continues to point to other areas in which Lowry can impact the game, whether it’s attacking the basket, pushing the ball in transition, or using what he describes as Lowry’s bulldog mentality to be a factor on the defensive end.
As the shooting slump prolongs, these other facets of Lowry’s game that makes him an effective player on the floor are disappearing as well. He did not look for his shot at all in the first half of Game 7 against the Pacers. Against Miami, Lowry came out looking for his shot but became more tentative as the game went on, and the misses added up. In the second half, with a clear path to the basket for a floater, Lowry made the curious decision to pass the ball to Valanciunas instead. Even he admits the shooting woes are starting to take its toll on his overall game.
Why Can’t The Raptors Kyle Lowry Shoot Anymore? | Pro Bball Report
We still do not have the answer to the 64-thousand dollar question, what is wrong with Kyle Lowry?
Is he hurt? Back in late March his shooting elbow was injured and had it drained. The elbow was first injured in their game with the Orlando Magic in London, England in January.
Lowry will tell you it’s the mechanics of his shot and nothing else. So you have to believe him.
Slumps happen. Casey is right, it’s like a baseball hitter who can’t hit the baseball. If Lowry is looking for company he can walk out the ACC and head down the street to the Rogers Center where there are a couple of Blue Jays going through a slump named Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki hitting well below .200. Except for those two it’s five months before they reach their postseason.
One thing for sure, the Raptors need Kyle Lowry to get it going. A 30 or 40 point game would be great, but a 20-pointer to go with a 20-pointer from DeRozan would help the cause advance to the conference final. Fortunately for Toronto, if his practice shot really is falling, this is a problem that should fix itself.
Toronto Raptors’ Jonas Valanciunas: No stranger to the big stage | Raptors Cage
FIBA World Cup
Jonas Valanciunas has been a household name in FIBA since 2008, when he debuted as part of the Lithuanian Under-16 National team in Italy. During that first year he averaged 14.3 points, 11.1 boards and 2.3 blocks in only 23.5 minutes. While those are stat-stuffing numbers, this was when he was playing against boys who were 16 and under.
Fast forward to the 2011 FIBA Under-19 Championship. He absolutely manhandled the competition, averaging 23 points, 14 boards and 3.2 blocks in 31 minutes a game. As a result of JV’s great play, Lithuania won the gold medal and he was named tournament MVP. In the summer of 2014, Jonas once again represented his country on the world stage of FIBA. During this tournament he averaged 14.4 points, shooting a ridiculous 70 per cent from the field, conjuring up 8.4 boards and swatting one shot per game.
So while DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry may be slumping, the silver lining is the emergence of Jonas Valanciunas. It’s unfortunate that the league is moving toward small ball-type systems because JV has tons of potential. However, I’m not convinced that traditional big men such as JV will be gone anytime soon.
The Raptors dependence on Jonas throughout the 2016 playoffs is evidence that his involvement on the offense can be a vital factor in Toronto staying competitive, not just now, but for several more seasons. Above all else, one thing seems certain: Jonas Valanciunas is a star-in-the-making for the Toronto Raptors.
Raptors’ rookie Delon Wright: Dwyane Wade is ‘my favorite player’ | USA Today
Wright, whose brother Dorell played in Miami with Wade from 2003 to 2010, remembers the days when he was 12 years old watching the two play alongside each other.
Now 24, his fandom hasn’t changed.
“Except for this series, I’m still a fan,” Delon said, per the Sun Sentinel. “Because I love D-Wade. That’s my favorite player.”
Delon, the 20th overall pick in last year’s draft, didn’t just grow up watching Wade, but he recalls being able to talk to the future Hall of Famer on the phone from time to time.
“He’s also like helped me out, too, just like when my brother was on the phone with him, he’d put him on the phone, even when I was young, so that really did a lot for me. So I’ve still been a fan of him,” he said.
Now, not only does he have the chance to go head-to-head with Wade, but, as fate would have it, he could potentially go up against his brother, who — after spending the majority of the season playing overseas — recently signed with the Heat for a second stint.
Raptors: Lack of experience could be deciding factor vs. Heat | Raptors Debate
The amount of experience the Raptors have is kind of cute, when you compare it to the Miami Heat. Luol Deng was an integral member of the Chicago Bulls teams of the past 5 years that made it deep in the Eastern Conference Playoffs almost every year from 2011 to 2015. Joe Johnson’s had his fair share of experience with the Suns, Hawks, and Nets. And D-Wade, well, he’s D-Wade. Arguably the third best shooting guard of all time, Wade has been to the NBA finals 5 times, which have resulted in 3 championships.
To be fair, Cory Joseph does have a ring that he earned as a member of the San Antonio Spurs in 2014, but he certainly wasn’t an integral part of the team at that stage. However, he’s a player that leads by example and his relentlessness rubs off on the rest of the team.
The Miami Heat win the Experience battle, but with that, they also win the old and decrepit battle.
The playoffs are a different animal and experience always proves to be the deciding factor when the clock winds down. That is something that is limited on the Raptors roster and a major advantage for Wade and the Heat.
Heat at Raptors: Game 2 preview | Toronto Star
Key matchup: Dwyane Wade vs. Norman Powell. It’s not fair to ask the Raptors rookie to win this matchup or even defend Wade by himself, but Toronto needs to get some offensive production out of Powell. If the Raptors want to play fast and push the tempo, some transition baskets from Powell are vital.
Miami Heat vs. Raptors, Game 2: Preview & 3 Keys to Victory | Raptors Rapture
Get to the free throw line. In Game 1, Lowry failed to attempt a free throw after averaging 6.4 free throw attempts per game in the regular season. While officials often call playoff games more leniently, Lowry still must try harder to make it to the line. Easy free throw attempts could help his slump. In contrast, DeMar DeRozan, who averaged 8.4 free throw attempts per regular season game, attempted 6 free throws and converted 4 against the Heat.
Make the extra pass. At times, the Raptors offense has struggled in the playoffs and felt unimaginative. Passing and ball movement could help open things up for DeRozan and Lowry. DeMarre Carroll, for instance, can be an effective three point shooter, but ball movement can improve his effectiveness. In game 1, he made 2 of his 4 three point attempts, and both made threes came with an assist, one by Terrence Ross and one by Lowry. In both instances, the Raptors made multiple passes on the play and DeMarre took shots with plenty of airspace. Carroll and other offensive players can contribute more if the Raptors emphasize ball movement.
The bench must produce more. After outperforming Indiana’s bench and playing a crucial role in the round one series win, Toronto’s bench lost against Miami. All the bench players posted a negative plus/minus grade in game 1, particularly Bismack Biyombo. When Biyombo was on the floor in game 1, the Heat outscored the Raptors by 13. Bismack usually brings defensive energy and strong rebounding skills off the bench, but Hassan Whiteside dominated their matchup when both were on the floor at the same time. According to NBA.com/stats, when both were on the floor Whiteside grabbed 7 rebounds, while Biyombo snagged only 3 rebounds. Improving this rebounding margin will be crucial in game 2.
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