Kyle Lowry passed Vince Carter for No. 3 on the Toronto Raptors’ all-time scoring list, and was among six Raptors players in double-figures as Toronto extended its franchise-best winning streak to 13 games, beating the Indiana Pacers 115-106 Friday night at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
It wasn’t nearly as dramatic as their 19-point comeback at Scotiabank Arena Wednesday evening against this same Pacers team, but Friday’s contest was every bit as competitive a matchup between two Eastern Conference heavyweights as you could’ve hoped for with 11 different lead changes and seven ties.
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If you’re looking for some drama from the Raptors, however, that came in the form of a couple injury scares.
The first being when Pascal Siakam got poked in his eye accidentally by teammate Ronde Hollis-Jefferson and was forced to leave the game temporarily late in the second quarter. Siakam scored 13 of his 15 points before the incident, so it seems as if it affected his accuracy, but at least didn’t force him to leave the game entirely.
The same couldn’t be said of Kyle Lowry, who was forced to exit the game late in the third quarter and didn’t return.
Here’s a little more on Lowry’s injury, plus a few more takeaways, from Friday’s game in Indianapolis.
Lowry down
With just a little over two-and-a-half minutes left to play in the third quarter, the Raptors all-star guard drove toward the basket along the left side, pulled up a little just before getting into the paint and tried to draw a foul on defender Jeremy Lamb. Lowry went up with an awkward layup attempt and then crashed hard to the ground, ramming what appeared to be his right shoulder/neck area inadvertently into teammate Serge Ibaka’s leg.
This resulted in Lowry writhing in pain on the floor and staying down for several minutes before he headed to the locker room. He was eventually ruled out for the remainder of the contest with whiplash.
Ultimately, Lowry’s departure from Friday’s contest didn’t affect things much on the floor as Toronto managed to hold onto its lead and come away with the victory.
After the game, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse told reporters that x-rays came back negative for anything major, but it’s unlikely he’ll be available for Saturday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets in Toronto.
Though not the best news, this is still positive to hear Lowry’s injury doesn’t seem too severe.
With that said, however, anything involving the neck should still be a cause for at least a little concern.
Particularly Lowry’s neck, and the possibility that him missing one game could add up to more after that. The Raptors have proven to be prudent with their injured players and this case with Lowry could be no exception.
And yes, the Raptors have done nothing but deal with injuries all season long – including an 11-game stretch without Lowry that saw the Raptors go 9-2 – but outside the obvious of the Raptors being worse off without their six-time all-star in the lineup for potentially a prolonged period of time, Lowry missing games at this point can be particularly problematic.
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The Raptors opted to stand pat at the trade deadline and afterwards Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said he’d like to take stock of what his team looks like at full- or near-full strength before seeing what additions they might want to look at in the buyout market.
Norman Powell is out indefinitely with a finger injury, so it’s not likely the Raptors were going to be waiting for him before pulling the trigger on a possible move, but with the expectation that Marc Gasol would be back after the all-star break, that would’ve been a reasonable time to then properly take stock of the team Toronto has and then assess.
If Lowry’s out longer than the initial sigh of relief indicates, though, it will surely throw a wrench into the front office’s plans.
Not to mention, the time after the all-star break is seen as the final stretch run before the post-season hits, and a good time for coaching staffs to begin tightening things up in preparation of the spring battles.
Again, if Lowry is out for a while, it could impact this aspect of the team, too.
Winning their 13th straight game is a really nice story that should be celebrated, but there’s no denying that Lowry going down was a big bummer with possibly greater implications.
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Davis balls out in Lowry’s absence
For more positive news now, Terence Davis was spectacular for Toronto down the stretch, and was the biggest reason why the Raptors held off the Pacers in the fourth quarter without Lowry.
The Raptors undrafted rookie gem scored 11 of his 17 points in the final period and put an exclamation point on the game with a stunning volleyball-style spike of a block into the second row of seats on Pacers sharpshooting forward Doug McDermott on a corner three-point attempt. Davis’s cutting dunk with 1:46 left put the Raptors up 10 and sent the Pacers to bed for the evening.
It’s been said many times before, but it’s quite apparent that no moment in a regular season is too big for Davis. The young man is fearless and has a knack for rising to the occasion in some of the most opportune times.
Friday night was just the latest example.
Ibaka does art
After Friday’s contest, Ibaka was interviewed by ESPN and was asked about his “drip.”
Not missing a beat, Ibaka responded with what has quickly become a signature line of his: “I don’t do drip or money or fashion. I do art.”
"I don't do drip … I do art."@sergeibaka to @Sedano pic.twitter.com/37HVfQu5qa
— ESPN (@espn) February 8, 2020
This was in reference to what he does with his personal style, but the art Ibaka was referring to could also apply to what he’s been doing on the court lately, with a second straight look at the Pacers proving, again, to be the perfect canvas for him to paint on.
Ibaka followed up a 30-point, seven-rebound performance on 13-for-21 shooting – that included the winning go-ahead triple with 30 seconds to play – Wednesday evening with a 22-point, 10-rebound game on 9-for-17 shooting Friday.
Not as strong as Wednesday’s game, but the 22 points was still the game high and just the latest in what has been a strong run of performances for Ibaka.
Coming into Friday’s game, Ibaka was averaging 23.4 points per game on 64 per cent shooting since Jan. 28. Fortuitously, this has coincided, with the exception of one game, with Gasol’s second stint on the injured list.
At this point it’s not really a secret, but Ibaka is currently playing the best basketball of his entire Raptors tenure, for sure, and maybe over the span of his entire career as well.
He was excellent again Friday, but spectacularly so, meaning he might not get as much attention for his performance on the evening. And that’s a pretty good indication of just how good he’s been.
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