It’s Kyle Lowry Time For Toronto
Facing off against the defending champions in the second round of the playoffs, the Raptors need a rejuvenated Kyle Lowry more than ever.
Getting blown out in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks was a wake-up call for the Toronto Raptors. It was a signal that things weren’t going to be easy for the favored Raptors.
Things got a little more dire when the Bucks took a 2–1 series lead a few days later. But, the Raptors rallied back and won three straight games to capture the series, capped off by a nerve-wrecking Game 6 victory on the road. It was a completely different Raptors team from Games 4 to 6, and it looked like one that had won 51 games in the regular season.
One big change in the Raptors’ play was that their stars, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, decided to show up in the series. DeRozan was stellar the whole series and showed that he can take the role of being Toronto’s closer in crunch-time. Make no mistake about it: This is DeRozan’s team now, and it will moving forward in the future. At the age of 27, DeRozan is in the prime of his career and is the man for Toronto.
Yet, in their upcoming series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, he won’t be the most important player for his team. That title falls to the player who used to be the man in Toronto: Kyle Lowry.
It has been an up and down year for Lowry. He missed the entire month of March with a wrist injury and only played a couple of games before the playoffs started. The rust clearly showed in Game 1 with Lowry going 2-of-11 from the field, 0-of-6 from three and finishing with only four points.
Lowry bounced back, scoring in double digits for the rest of the series and playing some great defense in the process. Yet, he was still very inconsistent offensively. He went from taking 17 field goal attempts in Game 4 to taking only 18 in Games 5 and 6 combined. That can’t happen for the Raptors if they want to have a chance of beating Cleveland. All of the offensive burden can’t fall on DeRozan’s shoulders. Lowry needs to step up and show why he is such a dangerous player offensively.
With Lowry being such a good shooter from the floor (56.9 effective field goal percentage this season) and reliable 3-point threat (41.2 percent), it’s almost impossible to go under the screen when the Raptors run the pick-and-roll with him as the ball-handler. To counter this, most teams are fine with doubling Lowry off the pick and forcing the ball out of his hands. The problem is that he is a great passer and can easily start a sequence towards a great shot with his decision-making.
Here, it’s a scrambled play, but once Lowry gets the ball, it’s a quick 1–5 pick-and-roll with Jonas Valanciunas. Tony Snell, who is guarding Lowry on the play, chooses to go over the screen and help double him along with Greg Monroe. As soon as Valanciunas rolls to the basket, Lowry is surrounded by Monroe and Snell. A jump shot likely gets blocked by Monroe and with the only other outlet being DeRozan, it could have turned into a very ugly offensive possession for the Raptors.
Instead, Lowry decides to make a jump pass, a very risky move. It was a pretty impressive pass from Lowry, considering how he had to contort his body to pass the ball under Monroe’s right arm. The ball bounces right to Valanciunas, and the Lithuanian big man has an easy layup with the help defense coming a little late.
Lowry also needs to be on his best game to help in late-game situations. As mentioned earlier, in crunch-time, the ball is going to be in DeRozan’s hands, but there will be moments when the ball will find its way to Lowry. He needs to be ready. Thankfully, he has been in that role before and showed that he can still play the closer role in the series against Milwaukee.
This possession originally looked like it was going to end with a DeRozan mid-range jumper, something that would constitute as a great shot for Toronto. Milwaukee saw that coming, and as soon as DeRozan went to his right, Giannis Antetokounmpo was right there to cut him off from a sideline jumper. After that first option was taken away, the ball ended up in Lowry’s hands, and he decided to put the game away.
With only six seconds left on the shot clock when he caught the ball, Lowry did a fantastic job getting off a great shot, despite being guarded by a decent defender in Malcolm Brogdon. Serge Ibaka immediately ran up to set a screen on Brogdon, but then moved away at the very last second. The initial action of Ibaka forced Brogdon to at least think about the screen, forcing Brogdon to move back to his right just a bit.
That was enough for Lowry to blow right by him to get to a good spot. Brogdon recovered well to get right back in front of his man and the basket. Still, it wasn’t enough, because Lowry was already in his trademarked step-back shot that seems to work in every late-game situation. One quick move, combined with a behind-the-back crossover, made it straight cash for the Raptors.
Initiating the offense will be key for Lowry and the Raptors if they want to keep pace with a Cavaliers offense that is in high gear at the moment. Toronto has to be able to take advantage of a Cavaliers defense that has shown multiple faces this season, with many of them being average at best. If the same bad habits start to plague the Cavaliers’ defense once again, Toronto has to take advantage.
This will be a very tough series to predict, given how fluctuant we have seen both of these teams play in the postseason. The Cavs are the favorites, and justifiably so. They have the best player in the series and are the better team. That doesn’t mean the Raptors won’t roll over though. They still remember last year’s defeat in the Eastern Conference Finals and will be looking to avenge that. They will need Kyle Lowry to step up in order to do so.
All statistics are utilized via Basketball-Reference.com or NBA.com unless otherwise stated.
