It was all going so well.
The Toronto Raptors were poised to complete their first series sweep in franchise history and readying to play the Boston Celtics for the first time in the playoffs in a much-anticipated second-round series between two of the Eastern Conference’s top teams.
And then Kyle Lowry stepped on the foot of Brooklyn Nets guard Chris Chiozza, rolled his left ankle, tumbled to the floor and came up limping and grimacing. He tried to keep playing late in the first quarter of what turned out to be a predictable 150-122 blowout win but had to kibosh that plan.
“He was fine,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse after the game. “And then he went out there and had to move a little quicker and realized he wasn’t fine. A lot of times [with] those injuries you get a shot of pain when they happen and then it subsides. I think he was hoping it was going to subside, and it did not.”
What won’t subside until Lowry can take the floor again for the Raptors and look like his typical rambunctious self — ideally for Game 1 against the Celtics on Thursday — is anxiety around whether Toronto’s championship defence will have been derailed before it has even really started, with apologies to the depleted Nets, who Toronto dispatched by winning four games by an average of 20.5 points per game, best among the 16 playoff teams at Walt Disney World Resort.
While it first looked like Lowry’s ankle was the problem there was a little more intrigue injected into the situation when Nurse said that it was the arch of Lowry’s foot that was going to be looked at with diagnostic testing.
“I know we say it a lot, but he’s very important for us,” said Serge Ibaka, who scored 27 points and 15 rebounds as part of the Raptors’ NBA-record 100 bench points. “He’s our motor. Hopefully he can be ready for the first game, because we need him big time, man. We need him big time.’
It should be pointed out that the Raptors did go 12-2 without Lowry this year as they proved over and over again while building the NBA’s second-best record during the regular season, and best mark (by six games) since Jan. 15, that they are more than the sum of their parts.
It’s as if into the vacuum left by the departure of starters from last year’s championship team, Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green in free agency, came an army of tough-minded NBA players hungry to prove themselves, just needing the opportunity.
It was on display in microcosm against the Nets when Fred VanVleet – the best player in the series on either team – sat midway through the first quarter with three fouls and then Lowry left the game a few moments later.
Rather than stumble, the Raptors soared, led by a bench unit craving the extra minutes and extra touches. Norman Powell set a Raptors playoff record for points off the bench, putting up 29 in 24 minutes.
The Celtics may have swept a talented Philadelphia 76ers team away like a dust bunny and may boast a starting lineup featuring four players taken in the top-10 of their respective drafts, but the Raptors — who don’t have a single player taken in the draft lottery in their rotation — believe what they may lack in star power they compensate for with a pretty damn good collection of committee members who are willing the play like it.
Even with Lowry and VanVleet — their two-headed point guard — limited to 29 total minutes Sunday night, the Raptors set a franchise record with 39 assists on a record 59 made field goals.
“I feel like I’m like a broken record saying this, but I think we have such great confidence, each and every one of us who steps on the floor, and we work the offence, I don’t think it really matters who’s in the game,” said Powell, who has translated his breakout regular season into a breakout post-season so far. “You guys have seen that all year long that we’re able to execute and make plays and continue to win, no matter what it looks like.
“I think we’ve always had a fighting spirit and once you have that and everybody collectively is playing for one purpose, which is to win, it don’t matter who’s scoring or what it is, who has it going that night, we continue to work, continue to flow and trust one another, we’re able to play like that, so we can have guys who are in foul trouble or — knock on wood — injury or whatever, but we’re still able to play our brand of basketball, and continue to execute the game plan.”
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But Lowry is Lowry. His willingness to take charges and his overall doggedness on defence combined with his ability and willingness to take big shots and pull the defence out with his deep three-point range are all qualities not easily replaced.
“I won’t be very comfortable without Kyle out there, I will say that, he’s certainly a big engine for us,” said Nurse. “But I would say, I think that we play a system or a style where lots of guys are involved …yeah, we’re going to miss all those great, great things Kyle does if he doesn’t play, but somebody else has got to take shots and play defence and play tough and do the things that he does to make up for it or we do it by committee, that’s probably a better way.
“But I would imagine this: It’s going to be a helluva injury to keep him off the floor. It’s not going to be a little thing; he’s going to try to figure it out.
“He played, I don’t know how many, 14 or 16 straight playoff games last year with a totally messed up left thumb [Lowry required surgery in the off-season], running through the Finals last year. It’s gonna take something pretty serious to keep him out.”
But this also true: If Lowry is out, it will be pretty serious. No amount of committee work can fix that.
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