https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb6cLyssn-K/
For the culture he instilled, Lowry earned every bit of love received in his return – Sportsnet
“I hope to God we ruin his night,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse had said before the game. “We love him, there’s no doubt about that. But you know what my job is now is to kick his ass. We’ll see what happens.”
What happened was a story the Raptors fans are familiar enough this season — at least when they’ve been on the losing end of games they otherwise played well enough to win.
In crunch time of a well-played game either team could have come out ahead on, the Heat had more shot makers — or more guys making shots — than the Raptors did as Miami and Lowry left town with a 114-109 win.
Even on a night without star Jimmy Butler and three rotation players, the ultra-deep Heat got some torrid late-game shooting from the likes of Max Strus and a revitalized Victor Oladipo to keep the Raptors from spoiling Lowry’s homecoming as they were so determined to do.
The Heat pair combined for 13 triples on 18 attempts and made four straight as part of a 14-1 run that broke open a tie game with 5:51 to play and put Miami up 10 with 2:22 on the clock. A Pascal Siakam triple, a driving lay-up and couple of trips to the line weren’t enough to make up any ground, though VanVleet did have a good look at three that would have pulled Toronto within one with 9.9 seconds left that fell short.
The loss snapped the Raptors five-game winning streak as they fell to 45-33 on the season as back into sixth-place in the East, two games up on seventh-place Cleveland with four games left to play. The Heat improved to 51-28 and two games up on Boston for first place in the East.
The energy the Raptors showed up with was no surprise to Lowry. He knows the script when former Raptors return to Toronto: nothing easy.
Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for the Raptors’ effort against Miami as a whole. The ceremony seemed to throw them off more than the Heat.
“I hope it’s a good learning lesson that we did blow a ton of coverages tonight,” said Nurse. “We haven’t done that in a long time. Right? Like we’ve got to make sure — I don’t care how many people are in the hallway before the game, we’ve got to be focused in, gotta get focused in and execute what we’re doing because if not we’re just gonna hope they miss, and they didn’t miss.”
Shorthanded Heat surge past Raptors in Kyle Lowry’s return, 114-109 – Hot Hot Hoops
Spearheaded by Oladipo and Herro, the Heat bench outscored Toronto’s 45-13, including 25-6 in the second half. The Raptors, however, tallied six more rebounds (54-48), three fewer turnovers (17 for Heat, 14 for Toronto) and three more points off turnovers (23-20).
VanVleet notched 16 of the Raptors’ first 23 points, outscoring Miami 16-12 by himself over the first 6:21. VanVleet’s floater widened the lead to 12 — 45-33 — with 6:25 left before halftime.
A mini 10-2 Heat run cut it to four with 4:03 remaining in the opening half, but the Raptors countered with an 8-2 run to go ahead 10 entering the break.
Toronto shot 43.2 percent from the floor and 31.8 percent from beyond the arc. Miami shot 42.5 percent with a 30.0 3-point percentage. Three Toronto players — VanVleet (21), Siakam (10) and Barnes (10) had double figures — while Miami had just one (Herro – 11).
Caleb Martin’s reverse layup followed by Strus’ 3-pointer sliced the deficit to 64-62 with 5:45 to go in the third. Another Strus 3-pointer gave Miami the 69-68 lead — its first lead since the 10:29 mark to start the contest.
Trent’s triple gave the Raptors the 91-87 lead with 7:04 left, prompting a Heat timeout. But six of the following seven Heat baskets came from downtown, giving Miami the 107-100 lead with 2:57 remaining. Toronto cut it to 112-107 with 27.2 seconds to go, but one free throw apiece from Herro and Oladipo was more than enough for Miami to secure its 51st victory of the season.
Having an unconditionally loved franchise icon who reciprocates the feeling was the one piece missing from the Raptors organizational resumé. After tonight, no longer. Any notions that this is a NERF ball franchise are cooked for good.
It’s been established over 78 games, but it’s pretty clear the post-Lowry Raptors are going to have similar ambitions to the ones Lowry achieved in Toronto, if not this season, then very soon. As the guys who received the baton from Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, Scottie Barnes and OG Anunoby are looking very much up to the task, even if their sage old vet was the one who came out on top on Sunday.
Of those four, three played against the Heat (OG missed this one with a thigh contusion after taking a knock on Friday in Orlando), and all three were excellent in their own ways. VanVleet kicked the night off with a 17-point first quarter, including three made triples that nudged him past Lowry’s previous single-season Raptors record of 238. Flashing a little bit more downhill burst than he’s shown most nights since All-Star weekend, he got to the line for 11 free throws and made them all, and closed the night with a rock solid 29-2-7 line on 7/17 shooting, 4/11 from three. Barnes, the one core piece with no ties at all to the Lowry era, chipped in 19 points, seven boards, two assists and two steals in 35 minutes. And Siakam, up against the league’s 4th-ranked defense and perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate Bam Adebayo as his primary check, was as excellent as Raps fans have come to expect from him, pouring in 29 points while grabbing nine boards and dishing five dimes on 11/19 shooting, achieved through the type of relentless matchup hunting we’ve seen from him all season.
But even with the new vanguards of Raptor basketball showing out well against the previous one, the Raptors didn’t have the juice to keep pace with a Miami offense that started to hum in the second half, thanks to a mix of Lowry-driven tempo, and some lights out three-point shooting against an out-of-sorts defense.
“They made a lot of shots obviously but that was the first time in a while we had trouble getting to some of our stuff defensively,” detailed Nick Nurse after the loss, pointing to the Raptors’ back side rotations in response to ball pressure as the soft spot.
Specifically, Nurse highlighted a stretch in the third quarter during which the Raptors blitzed Tyler Herro a bunch, but left Miami’s fifth option in Omer Yurtseven unattended under the bucket for three consecutive lay-ins. Couple that with some slow-to-get-there contests of the Heat’s stable of dangerous long-range gunners, and it was as out of character defensive effort as we’ve seen from Toronto in weeks. The Heat connected on 18 of 38 threes.
“We weren’t very tuned in defensively, we weren’t good enough, I thought they had really good looks,” Nurse said. “… you’ve gotta hope they miss. And they didn’t miss. You‘ve gotta make ‘em miss.”
Kyle Lowry’s Raptors legacy lives on in Fred VanVleet – TSN.ca
It was a special night at Scotiabank Arena, a celebration of Lowry and everything he meant, and continues to mean, to the franchise and its fans. Back in the city he called home for nine historic seasons for the first time since joining the Heat as a free agent over the summer, the 36-year-old Raptors icon got the hero’s welcome he deserved.
The ovations started when he left the court following warm-ups and continued on throughout the evening. Lowry mostly held it together after his video tribute played during line-up introductions, as he promised he would, but he could feel the love from the sell-out crowd, who stood and cheered in appreciation for more than two minutes. It would’ve gone on even longer if there wasn’t a game to get to.
“It meant the world to me,” Lowry said afterwards. “The first time is always special. You don’t forget that.”
VanVleet had his own welcome planned. Now an all-star in his own right, the 28-year-old was matched up with Lowry from the jump and wasted no time in sending a message. It was going to be a long night.
It was the real life embodiment of the Spiderman meme, with a couple like-minded competitors going back and forth. There are no secrets there. After sharing the court for five seasons in Toronto, after winning a championship together, they know each other’s tricks. Still, familiarity didn’t make it any easier for either player to get an edge. They’re too smart, too crafty, and they play far too hard for that.
“They obviously know each other’s games and I thought they both played great,” Nurse said. “They were both guarding and scoring and passing and doing everything they could to will their teams to a win.”
“It was fun to compete against him,” said VanVleet. “I know him really, really well and he knows me really, really well. I was happy he got that tribute from the fans, but I obviously did not want him to leave this building with a win.”
A few minutes into the game, Lowry pulled up from just inside of the logo and subtly threw his body into another former teammate, , drawing a foul and earning three free throws. Moments later, VanVleet did the exact same thing, drawing the foul on Heat centre . Then, he drove into Lowry, who went vertical at the rim, and finished through contact, just as his processor has done so many times before.
VanVleet came into Sunday’s game needing three more three-pointers to break the Raptors franchise record for most treys in a season, set by Lowry in 2017-18. It only took him six minutes and three attempts to get it done, and he did it with Lowry on the floor. He scored 17 first-quarter points and had 21 by halftime.
The loss also derailed Toronto’s attempt to fully secure a post-season berth. They remain in a fifth-place tie with the Chicago Bulls, 2 1/2 games up on seventh-place Cleveland. But Toronto is now three games behind fourth-place Philadelphia with only four games left in the season.
That the game went down to the wire shouldn’t be a surprise: The other times they met this season, one game went to triple overtime and none were decided by more than five points.
“Part of it is, we see who they are, what they’ve got, how hard they play, how fast they move, and we understand we better do the same or it’s going to be a really long night,” Nurse said before the game. “We usually get out there and try to compete at the same level that they do. And we all get a treat, because the games we’ve had with them this year have been awesome to watch. Let’s hope there’s another one like that tonight.”
Miami’s Kyle Lowry looks for a way past old teammate Pascal Siakam in Sunday night’s game at Scotiabank Arena.
It was pretty awesome.
“I think just in general it was a good really physical game, and I think it was playoff-like,” Nurse said.
About half an hour of real time after a video tribute perfectly capped Lowry’s nine seasons in Toronto, a chapter written by Lowry was rewritten by his protégé. A three-pointer by VanVleet, part of a wonderful 29-point game, gave him 239 on the season to surpass the franchise record set by Lowry in 2017-18.
Lowry, the recipient before the game of the warmest reception ever afforded a returning Raptor, was fully aware that VanVleet was about to eclipse the single-season mark of 238 that Lowry set in 2017-18. And fine when he did it.
“He’s going to continue to build that,” Lowry said after the game. “That’s one record down that I’m happy he’s got. That’s how it was. If you guys watch him and see what he did tonight, how aggressive and how assertive he was, that’s just who he is. That’s why I was able to pass the torch to someone like that.”
Lowry and VanVleet will always be inextricably linked: the starting backcourt on Toronto’s 2019 NBA championship squad and very much the tutor and student in the five seasons they shared with the Raptors.
“My first year, I turned myself into a pretty good corner three-point shooter, and next step was above the break.” VanVleet said. “So at that point — I think he had 11, 12, 13 years of league reps under his belt — just staying next to him and seeing how he gets it off, seeing how he hunts them, when he hunts them and just finding a rhythm. So just standing next to him and trying to be a sponge and learn as much as possible.”
HAPPY HOMECOMING: Kyle Lowry, Heat scorch Raptors | Toronto Sun
Lowry had his moments for sure in a 16-point night to go along with 10 assists and five rebounds, but it was a heavy dose of Max Strus from behind the arc that turned the game in Miami’s favour and eventually earned them a 114-109 win.
Strus, a 40% three-point shooter on the season went seven from nine against the Raptors who led for most of the first three quarters but had no answer for Strus all night.
Strus his all three of his fourth-quarter triples to turn the tide in this one.
And when it wasn’t Strus, it was Victor Oladipo, the former Indiana standout who had fallen on some tough injury luck but is looking very healthy these days in a Miami uniform, doing the damage.
Oladipo was 6-of-9 from distance on the night giving the Heat 21 points off the bench.
In the end, Lowry got everything he wanted in his return: A chance to say thank you to the fans, a chance to feel their appreciation for him and, as always, most importantly, the win.
Fred VanVleet got a little something out of it too.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” VanVleet said when asked if the battle he had just finished with Lowry was reminiscent of those practices when he first came into the league and made an impression going right at Lowry.
“Obviously that is what respect looks like,” VanVleet said. “Obviously I want to give him my best and he deserves that. He brings out a different competitive edge in myself and is one of the reasons why I have been able to grow as a player in this league is because he sets the bar so high.
“More than anything I just wanted to get the win so obviously not happy about that, but that was a really fun game to be a part of and I’m happy for him that he got that experience here and got to do it with the fans in the building. I’m sure it was everything he deserves and more.”
With the loss the Raptors are once again tied for fifth in the Conference with idle Chicago while the Heat maintain their No. 1 standing in the East.
Raptors See How Special Kyle Lowry is as Heat Eke out Win – Sports Illustrated
So much of Toronto’s success this season goes back to having a sturdy foundation built from the rubble of the We The North era of Raptors basketball. It was Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan that set the tone for the organization and even a decade after they arrived in Toronto, their presence is still felt.
At the same time, though, Lowry’s departure was required for this new era to truly reach its potential. Would the Raptors be better with Lowry this season? I don’t know, but VanVleet and Pascal Siakam wouldn’t be who they are right now if he hadn’t left.
“We knew that other guys were gonna get more opportunities playing wise, chances wise, shots wise, et cetera. I think that’s probably the case with any star play on departure,” Nurse said pre-game. “It’s the younger guys’ opportunity to take it or not. That’s certainly the case now.”
Without Lowry, both VanVleet and Siakam have played the best basketball of their careers.
“He was always a pro. Coming in and getting his work in early. That’s something that we all watched, and for me now coming back, I have to set that example for everybody else because I’ve seen him do it, and he did it every single day no matter what,” Siakam said. “Those are definitely things that I learned from him, and again he was a true professional, and if you want to be close to the level that he was, those are the things that you can achieve.”
Now, the two have stepped into the void, the dynamic duo, the so-called Spice and Dice, that can rain down three-pointers and attack from the inside. On Sunday, the two carried Toronto, with 29 points apiece.
“He brings out a different competitive edge in myself and one of the reasons why I have been able to grow as a player in this league is because he sets the bar so high,” VanVleet said.
Kyle Lowry stands alone in Raptors return without acrimony | The Star
The rare ring sighting was fitting, perhaps, because there’s never been a Raptors reunion quite like Sunday’s Lowry love-fest. The night came with plenty of hugs, a pre-game tribute video that hit all the right notes and a lengthy standing ovation that only ended when Lowry, who acknowledged the ovation at centre court alongside his two school-aged sons, moved himself out of the spotlight in the name of getting the game going.
And it ended in familiar enough fashion — with Lowry central to a victory, albeit for the undermanned visitors, who put an end to a five-game Toronto win streak with a 114-109 win, this while missing starters Jimmy Butler and P.J. Tucker.
After it was over, Lowry called it one of the most emotional moments of his life.
“It meant the world to me for the fans to show their appreciation, give me an ovation like that, to be out on the floor with some of my former teammates,” Lowry said. “The first time is always special. You don’t forget that … Even if I didn’t win, it was a great night.”
Win or lose, the event was essentially a one-off in franchise history, when you think about it. Tick off the list of Toronto’s marquee players through the years — Damon Stoudamire, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Chris Bosh, even DeMar DeRozan — and there’s always been acrimony coming from at least one side in the wake of the parting.
Carter is beloved now, but when he quit on the franchise and returned little in a trade, he cast himself as a villain who was booed viciously for years. DeRozan is beloved always, but when he was moved to San Antonio in the deal that brought Kawhi Leonard to Toronto, he was viscerally hurt in a way you don’t often see in a cut-throat business where everyone knows loyalty always has its limits. McGrady and Bosh were booed lustily on their Toronto homecomings after moving on. In Stoudamire’s first game in Toronto after asking out, a fan took a swing at him as he left the floor (the fan missed and hit a security guard instead).
As for Leonard, Toronto’s only Finals MVP, he predicted he’d get booed in his first game on Bay Street after signing with the Clippers in the summer of 2019. He was wrong, of course, and respectfully embraced with a standing ovation and a championship-ring presentation.
The night came with plenty of hugs, a pre-game tribute video that hit all the right notes and a lengthy standing ovation for Kyle Lowry.
Still, there was no comparing Lowry’s return to Leonard’s. Leonard is the best player to ever wear a Raptors uniform and the undeniable linchpin of the team that raised the banner. But he wasn’t here long enough to form the kind of blood bond that will forever connect the likes of Lowry and DeRozan to Toronto’s fan base.
SIMMONS: The great Kyle Lowry celebration ends in defeat for Raptors | Toronto Sun
This didn’t happen for Darryl Sittler or Mats Sundin or Doug Gilmour in Toronto. Not like this. This didn’t happen for Vince Carter or DeMar DeRozan or Chris Bosh. This didn’t happen for Roberto Alomar or Roy Halladay or Carlos Delgado.
It has never happened before.
The love and appreciation for Kyle Lowry cannot be adequately measured. It is more than overt. It is deep and stunningly loyal. It has grown over time to an almost unexplainable level of regard and admiration.
You could hear it and witness it early Sunday evening at the Scotiabank Arena watching the fans enter the arena for this game against the Miami Heat. The number of the night was 7. The name on the back of jersey after jersey after jersey was Lowry. If he wasn’t everywhere, his name and number certainly were. Like no crowd Toronto has seen before — you name the team, the time, the circumstances.There has never been a night like this in Toronto.
About one player. About saying thanks. About love and applause. Kyle Lowry may not be anything resembling a basketball all-time great but he’s our all-time great. Our symbol. Our guy. Through all the years — the scowls, the fights, the battles with Dwane Casey, the time not talking to Masai Ujiri, the anger over the dealing of Rudy Gay, and the friendship with DeMar DeRozan born out of it. This wasn’t always perfect — and no sporting relationships ever are — but over time the Raptors won an unlikely championship and Lowry became owner of this strange invented and seemingly important title, GROAT: Greatest Raptor of all time. He has no belt displaying that. In this city at this time with this team growing into contender, the way Lowry’s Raptors did before DeRozan had to be sacrificed for one season and one championship for Kawhi Leonard, the acknowledgment is apparent.
And give Lowry some love here. This isn’t a one-sided relationship. There is nothing phony about it. Toronto loves him and he loves Toronto. Lowry hadn’t played a game in Toronto in more than two years and didn’t even remember his last game here, a Raptors loss to Charlotte. That, like a lot of games, blends into the past. But Sunday night was special for Lowry — and he wasn’t about to cheat himself and the crowd wasn’t about to cheat him.
He walked into Scotiabank looking like he was wearing all $266 million of his career earnings in the NBA. He wore that gaudy championship ring. He wore a watch you couldn’t stop staring at. He wore celebrity sunglasses. He wore a perfectly tailored suit with a puff in the top left pocket. He doesn’t dress like this most nights in the league. This was a time for his Sunday best. He smiled a lot. He fought with no one. He put his combative caustic side away.
“It’s hard to look this good,” said Lowry, clearly understanding what this night was and what it was going to be about.
Before the game, after they showed the perfunctory tribute video, Lowry was introduced singularly as the last of the Miami Heat starters. The crowd stood and cheered. The Heat stood and applauded as did the Raptors. And Lowry made his way to centre court, accompanied by his two young sons who grew up here, and he couldn’t stop smiling and waving and clapping and waving some more.
However he may have scripted this evening, however the crowd may have scripted it, it was better than expected. “It means something special to me,” said Lowry. “The city, the country, the organization.” He mentioned Ujiri and Bobby Webster, the architects, and he mentioned, as everyone seems to, the chairman, Larry Tanenbaum.
