The Toronto Raptors’ All-Star backcourt are sharing another honor together.
Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan have been named Eastern Conference co-Players of the Month for the month of January, the team announced Tuesday. They join head coach Dwane Casey in celebrating the team’s 12-2 month and 11-game winning streak with an award, as Casey was named the East’s Coach of the Month on Monday.
Cleveland Cavaliers fans are sure to raise their eyebrows given that LeBron James averaged 23.6 points on 55.2-percent shooting with 6.6 rebounds and 7.1 assists, helping produce a 13-3 record for the Cavs, but those are the breaks. Each month, the competition is going to be incredibly tight, and many Raptors fans felt slighted when DeRozan missed out on the December award in favor of John Wall (Lowry and DeRozan both received honorable mentions in November). Chicago Bulls fans may have a gripe given the month Jimmy Butler turned in, too.
It’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but it’s a nice nod to perhaps the best month in franchise history for the Raptors. DeRozan earned Player of the Month honors last April, Lowry in December, but before that it had been since all the way back in 2007 (Chris Bosh) when the Raptors had someone take the monthly award. Lowry and DeRozan are now the first players in team history to win the monthly award more than once.
The fact that they’re sharing the award really couldn’t be more perfect. In their fourth season together, they’ve developed a terrific chemistry both on and off the court, growing as a deadly offensive tandem and as the most adorable friendship this side of Turk and J.D. Players sharing the award is fairly uncommon, with all five Atlanta Hawks starters sharing it last January and LeBron James and Dwyane Wade sharing it in December of 2010 representing the only instances of a split award since 2002 (Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, and Michael Finley).
Congrats @DeMar_DeRozan & @Klow7 on being named Eastern Conference Co-Players of the Monthhttps://t.co/ERUYVLpRzA pic.twitter.com/vDRoRHvxU8
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) February 2, 2016
DeRozan trailed only Butler in East scoring for January, averaging 23.9 points on 44.2 from the floor, 41.7 percent from long-range, and 84.8 percent on 7.1 free-throw attempts per-game. He also added 4.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and one steal, turning in 36.1 minutes a night. Lowry, meanwhile, rebounded from a less efficient December to shoot 45.1 percent overall and 40.2 percent from outside, leading to averages of 21.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.7 assists, and 2.4 steals. Lowry’s most notable contribution in his 39 minutes a night may have been the chemistry he found with the reserve unit, which really propelled the Raptors during their winning streak.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet tw-align-center” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Infographic on the Toronto Raptors franchise record 11 game winning streak. <a href=”https://t.co/OntT5aBiC1″>pic.twitter.com/OntT5aBiC1</a></p>— Alan (@the__mvp) <a href=”https://twitter.com/the__mvp/status/694634947739398144″>February 2, 2016</a></blockquote>
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That means the pairing combined for 45.6 points, 24 rebounds, and 10.9 assists. That’s a two-man power trip that would make Triple H and Stone Cold blush. The workloads are a bit heavy but the results speak for themselves, and as it’s been suggested to me, that’s a future Raptors maybe-problem. (Personally, I don’t think the winning streak or the awards justifies that and my long-term concern remains, but this isn’t the place for that discussion.) They were really good and it led to the Raptors being really good, enough so that they’re now 32-16, second in the East and five games insulated from the third seed. It was a huge month in terms of how the rest of the season could play out.
The BFFs will also share the spotlight together at the All-Star Game in Toronto next weekend, with Lowry starting for the East and DeRozan coming off the bench. It’s a good time to be those guys and a fun time to be a Raptors fan.
