TORONTO – Kyle Lowry looks like he’s once again putting the Toronto Raptors on his back, just as he did around this time a year ago. He’s doing it once again while the team grapples with an injury crisis; last year it was DeMar DeRozan’s torn adductor muscle. This time, it’s DeMarre Carroll’s plantar fasciitis and knee contusion, coupled with Jonas Valanciunas’ fractured hand.
The Raptors expect that from their point guard. It’s just his thing, you know? What they don’t want is a similar ending; what they don’t want is their engine – because that’s exactly what Lowry is – wearing down in the playoffs. And so it was comforting to see the Raptors score a 97-94 win over the San Antonio Spurs with Valanciunas and Carroll in dry-dock, then hear Lowry stand in front of his locker and talk about how things will be different this year. This is, he said, precisely why he showed up with a newly engineered body – plus, you know, Cory Joseph.
That sensation Lowry feels when he’s putting the Raptors on his back? It’s Joseph, giving him a hand, lightening the load.
“The way Cory plays defence it gives me an opportunity to rest,” Lowry said, “and when it comes down to late-game situations, I can get back on my man or you can leave (Joseph) on him.”
Raptors head coach Dwane Casey famously said at the start of the season that he believed he had the makings of a superior club to that of the 2014-2015 season, even though it was possible that the team’s won-loss record might actually be worse. What he meant, of course, was that it would be a team better positioned for a lengthy playoff run – and it’s to be imagined that part of that equation is a rested, healthier Lowry come spring. That’s why in the wake of the win over the Spurs, Casey slid in a reference to “trying to limit Kyle’s minutes.”
Joseph is key to that: he allows Lowry to play off the ball and not run through as many screens and pick-and-rolls, which helps preserve his body. He doesn’t replicate Lowry’s energy, but he’s a reasonable facsimile in the way Greivis Vasquez wasn’t.
Lowry had his streak of games with at least one steal stopped at 21 earlier this week, but he goes into Friday’s tilt against the Milwaukee Bucks first in the NBA in steals with 2.52 and he, Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook are the only players ranked in the Top 10 in both points and assists. He is well ahead of a place that saw him register 109 steals all of last season, and while his improved fitness is a factor, so too must be the share of the workload assumed by Joseph.
This was the way the Raptors will need to do it the rest of the season, since the fact is Carroll’s plantar fasciitis will bear monitoring and when it flares up there will be a trickle-down effect. They will need Bismack Biyombo, Luis Scola and Patrick Patterson and even Terrence Ross, because while it has become quietly apparent that Casey has a much more versatile mix of players on his bench than he’s had in the past, it stands to reason that in the current NBA the accent will be on combinations as opposed to straight man for man substitutions.
Ross and Patterson, in particular, were singled out by Casey and they were effective defensively in the fourth quarter against the Spurs. Ross, of course, contributed to Lowry’s wearing down last season when he was exposed during the six-week absence of DeRozan. At that time, it was widely seen as an opportunity for Ross to put his imprint on the team – perhaps even seen as a bit of a dry run for 2016-2017, in case DeRozan and the Raptors couldn’t come to a contractual agreement.
Ross wasn’t up to it; and the result was Lowry filling in the void here, there and everywhere. It got attention, helped earn him a spot in the All-Star Game … and left him spent in the first round of the playoffs. Ross can’t replace Valanciunas, of course, but his skill-set can help offset the loss of Carroll on the perimeter.
Ross has started the past two games, after having a so-so season off the bench. In a strange way, it might be just the thing to jump-start Ross, since the demands on a player coming off the bench are in some ways more pronounced than a starter’s. As Casey notes, there is no time to “get into the game” or “find your rhythm.” It needs to be there as soon as the warm-ups are stripped off at the scorer’s table. But starting is a double-edged sword; while it is true that Ross might get better looks and more offensive joy because he is playing with his own first unit, he is at the same time at mercy of the other team’s first unit when he’s playing defence.
“More time means more opportunities, and you don’t feel like you have to rush things right away – you don’t feel like you need to make an impact as soon as you step on (the court),” said Ross.
“But, whatever the role, I know they need me to play my game – or, to at least bring intensity to both sides of the ball. Be hard to play against.”
That’s really what the Raptors need right now: to be hard to play against, game in and game out. Hard enough to impress Lowry to the point where there’s something left of him in the spring.