The Toronto Raptors five-game winning streak ended on Boxing Day with a 100-80 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

The Raptors will look to get back on track Friday in New Orleans where they will face the Hornets.

The Hornets snapped an 11-game losing streak Wednesday with a 97-94 win over the Orlando Magic.

Here are a few things to consider ahead of Friday’s game:

Lowry’s return

Kyle Lowry, who has been sidelined by a partially torn triceps muscle that caused him to miss the Raptors’ last seven games, will return to duty against New Orleans.

Kyle Lowry will dress for tonight’s game at New Orleans. Jose Calderon will continue to start. #Raptors

— RaptorsMR (@RaptorsMR) December 28, 2012

In his absence, the team has recorded a 5-2 record and it appears as though he has lost the starting point guard spot to Jose Calderon, leading to a good deal of questions surrounding the Raptors.

How will he react to a new bench role? Will Lowry be upset and cause a fuss thus upsetting team chemistry in the locker room? What happens if the team returns to its losing ways?

Raptors coach Dwane Casey addressed the media in New Orleans after practice Thursday and said that he is confident there won’t be any issues.

“There’s no personality massaging,” Casey told the Toronto Sun’s Mike Gantner with regard to Lowry’s return.

“This is a team. We’ve got to do it as a team. We’ve shown whether it’s Kyle or DeMar (DeRozan), Andrea (Bargnani), whoever it is, Jose (Calderon), whatever we’re doing, we’re doing for the team.”

Regardless of what Casey said, those questions will begin to sort themselves out Friday in New Orleans.

On the road again

To say the Raptors have been woeful on the road this season would be a bit of an understatement.

The team has only recorded a pair of wins in 17 tries away from home this season and that needs to turn around if they are able to make a run towards respectability.

Granted, the schedule was tilted against them to start the season but they are facing a Hornets team that has lost 11 of their last 12 games. In other words, this should be a winnable game.

Gordon’s on his way

While New Orleans has struggled of late, help is on the way.

Shooting guard Eric Gordon is set to make his season debut Saturday night against the Charlotte Bobcats.

“If I had to guess it would be Saturday against Charlotte,” Hornets coach Monte Williams told the Times Picayune Wednesday. “A lot of that is me, and we want to make sure that we bring him back when he’s in a lot better shape. He’s spent so much time rehabbing and getting his quad stronger, but we have to make sure he’s in a good place before he comes back.”

There were some suggestions prior to the season opening that Gordon would return in late-December to try and showcase his skills for a potential trade.

It is believed that he has wanted to leave New Orleans since the day he arrived in the Chris Paul trade.

Gordon has only appeared in nine games since the trade occurred as he has been bothered by several knee issues.