ATLANTA — Early in the first quarter of a meaningless game in a relatively lifeless arena against perhaps the worst team in the NBA in the middle of a Monday afternoon, Kyle Lowry hurled his stocky, not-made-for-jumping body into the air and came down with an offensive rebound.
Almost before his feet hit the paint again at State Farm Arena the Raptors point guard was turning to hurl a strike into the waiting hands of Fred VanVleet who flipped it to Marc Gasol for a too easy three-pointer.
A moment later it was Lowry closing out like a missile to the three-point line, forcing Atlanta Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter into a turnover.
VanVleet didn’t convert the triple that came about from that play, but he only had to wait a moment. A couple of beats later Lowry collapsed down deep into the paint on the defensive end to strip another Hawks youngster. Lowry pushed the ball up to VanVleet and watched his backcourt partner knock down the triple.
Things didn’t always unfold so smoothly in the Raptors’ roller coaster 122-117 win, but Lowry did his best to set the tone.
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Monday was the deadline for fan voting for starters in the NBA All-Star game. Hawks second-year guard Trae Young was leading the way among Eastern Conference guards when the last tally came out. He’ll likely be an all-star starter before he plays an NBA game that counts for something other than where his team finishes in the lottery. Averaging 29 points and nine assists gets people’s attention.
Lowry’s numbers aren’t quite as shiny — there is no shame in putting up 20.4 points and 7.6 assists at age 33. But he has an NBA title in his pocket and has only played games that matter for seven years and counting on behalf of the Raptors, whom Lowry has led to the post-season every year since 2013-14. Lowry is currently fifth in voting among guards and will almost certainly have to depend on being a coach’s pick to make his sixth all-star appearance.
Was that juxtaposition why Lowry seemed to come out with a little fire, wanting to show that his brand of 360-degree basketball deserved some shine alongside Young’s box score friendly empty calories?
Maybe, but then again Lowry is rarely short on motivation, even in his 14th season.
“I think there’s certainly some of that going in night in and night out,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse before the 2:30 p.m. tip as part of the NBA’s 14-game slate to mark Martin Luther King Day. “It seems like every time you line ‘em out there there’s somebody out there.”
Young certainly gave the Raptors problems. He moves like a drop of mercury on a glass table, his feet barely touching the floor except when he’s getting ready to launch a three from anywhere inside the half-court logo. He can rifle passes in traffic or lob them gently above the fray.
It was almost enough. Young finished with 42 points and 15 assists, on paper out-playing Lowry, who stumbled after his quick start, ending up with 10 points and seven assists in just 29 minutes.
“He’s pretty good, he has the ball in his hands a lot but he’s making the right decisions, the right plays. For 21 his usage is crazy but he can handle it right now,” said Lowry. “He’s playing unbelievable right (now). He’s playing with confidence, with assertiveness that you need to be that guy on your team and he’s going to continue to get better.”
But on an afternoon when it would have been easy for a veteran team to mail it in, Lowry was on the grind early.
And when the Raptors’ second unit was the group that finally found enough momentum to seemingly split the game open early in the fourth quarter it was Lowry who cheered every deflection and sprinted onto the floor at the timeout to pump-up rookie Terence Davis after a big three-pointer. He almost knocked over Powell when the Raptors’ bench-scoring machine knocked down his fourth triple of the second half to put the Raptors up nine with 7:37 to play. When Powell hit another – this time facing up Vince Carter in isolation – Lowry was only one of a crowd of Raptors celebrating.
In the end it was all enough for the win that was easy at the start but hard fought after that.
Once the team bus arrived the odds were overwhelmingly in Toronto’s favour, as the 10-win Hawks have often shown themselves uninterested in competing most games. They lost by 33 to a fast-sliding Detroit Pistons team on Saturday night. They rank 29th in the league on offence, 26th on defence and have lost an NBA-high 21 games by 10 points or more. The Raptors have lost just six games by 10. The Hawks have given up 120 points or more 20 times and are 2-18 when they do. They are 0-8 when they give up 130 or more.
Those who watch them on a regular basis would say they just don’t compete often enough or hard enough when they do. Taken a step further — a team built around the ball-dominant talents of a player like Young, who gives little on defence — has painted itself into a corner when it comes to squeezing every ounce out of a roster. It will be interesting to watch.
The Raptors are in a bit of a lull in their schedule with Monday marking their third-straight start against a certain lottery team.
There was some concern pre-game about falling into bad habits.
“For me, you’ve got to be really careful in these games that [first] you don’t play with enough pace,” said Nurse. “You want to get the transition game going. And two, that you [don’t] try to jump shoot your way to a win. When you’re doing that, you’re probably settling a little bit. We’ve got to make sure we get some free throws, we get to the front of the rim a little bit, get in the paint enough. If we do those kind of things, the rest of it usually falls into place.”
One thing Lowry brings that doesn’t catch all-star voters’ attention is that his pilot light stays lit at all times — even when playing an early game and the third game in four days. It’s a big reason the Raptors improved to 23-2 against teams with losing records. Lowry doesn’t take days off.
Driven by Lowry’s hustle, the Raptors jumped out to a quick 14-7 lead and were up 36-25 after the first quarter.
But the Hawks didn’t go away. Midway through the second quarter they led 46-45 thanks mainly to shooting 7-of-15 from the three-point line while the Raptors were 3-of-16. Young had 11 points and seven assists. But the Raptors were winning the turnover battle 8-2 and had earned eight offensive rebounds to two by Atlanta. The Raptors kept bricking threes at a rate not seen since their memorable 6-of-42 brick-fest against the Miami Heat. At the half the Hawks led 60-57.
The Hawks pushed their lead to eight midway through the fourth quarter when Vince Carter — yes that Vince Carter, the former Raptors icon who turns 43 next week – hit a triple. The Raptors’ shooting woes continued but they were able to tighten up their defence while getting a pair of triples from Powell to spark a 12-3 run and give them an 83-82 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Powell was just getting started on his way to team-high 27 points, giving him 20 or more points for the fifth-straight game since missing 11 with a shoulder injury.
Thanks to Powell’s second half surge, the Raptors were leading by 21 with 4:30 to play before things got dicey after the Hawks began pressing late.
Atlanta cut the lead to three after Powell turned it over on an inbounds with 1:25 to play and Young got a basket on a goaltending call. Lowry was finally subbed back in with 42.5 to go for extra ball-handling. The Hawks cut it to two before VanVleet was fouled on a three-point attempt with 14.2 remaining. The Raptors guard knocked down all of them to finally put a lid on things.
“We don’t practice [against a press] that much to be honest with you and we didn’t have maybe the right crew in there to face it,” said Nurse after the game. “I think the beginning is always the key component, right? Can you break it right off the bat, can you attack it and go down and get a layup or something and we didn’t. The first couple, we turned it over real quickly right into layups and then it’s really revved up and the building’s revved up and all that kind of stuff. We didn’t do a very good job with it. We’ll have to certainly organize ourselves a little better for the next time we see that.”
Still, when the final horn sounded and the unconventional win was in the books, Lowry was there to greet his teammates, one-by-one, but not before seeking out Young for a hug.
It wasn’t an all-star afternoon or a piece-of-art victory, but Lowry and the Raptors have never been about aesthetics.
He may not have left Atlanta with any extra all-star votes, but the Raptors won their fourth-straight and improved to 29-14.
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