Kyle Lowry had endured another miserable shooting night, but nearly made up for it with a half-court shot (it wasn’t a heave – I was there) that hit nothing but net after the Q4 buzzer. Yet Raptors guard Terrence Ross knocked down a three-pointer, the Heat turned it over and ultimately failed to ensure something like Lowry’s shot wouldn’t happen.
Advertisement
After sinking most of his shots, Lowry eventually sat on the baseline by the stanchion to ponder for a while, then alternated a few shots with Raptors security chief John Altilia, before finally exiting the court in good spirits at 12:45 a.m.
“I have (been through slumps like this), but not at this time, and that’s what sucks”, Lowry said, according to the Toronto Star. Playoffs, all eyes are on you. “That’s when you truly grow, when you face adversity together, you get to know each other for real”.
Lowry and his Toronto Raptors will have another shot at the Miami Heat when the teams meet on Thursday evening at the Air Canada Centre.
“One-fifteen. Just being a kid again, trying to have some fun”, Lowry said after practice on Wednesday afternoon.
“I liked our battle”, Toronto coach Dwane Casey said. “It’s frustrating. I’m not going to shy away from the criticism”.
He’s doing that the only way he knows how, shooting into the wee hours of the morning to find a solution.
“To show the mental resolve to come back and take control of overtime”, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said, “that’s a great mental toughness that I think we showed from there”. Lowry was playing like a poster boy for an instructional video on how not to play basketball. The pain got bad enough that he had to get the elbow drained in late March, and that’s when his shooting slump really began. Even he admits the shooting woes are starting to take its toll on his overall game. “He’s an All-Star for a reason, like we all say”, Toronto power forward Patrick Patterson said. I do believe in him, and he’s going to come out of it. During the regular season he made 42.7% of shots and averaged 21.2 points per game. The Heat, a decaying championship roster who will only suit up two players from the 2014 Eastern Conference Champion team, will face the upstart Raptors, whose only player with Championship experience is newcomer Cory Joseph. I’m going to continue to be aggressive, to shoot shots and take the onus. Toronto could be an issue for the Heat in that department as well; the Raptors outscored Indiana’s bench 34-27 on average in their matchup.
Advertisement
But teammates and opponents alike said don’t count him out yet. In fact, his shooting affected the rest of his game, truly got into his head, and hurt the Raptors’ offense beyond the shots that he missed. For some reason, the ball just doesn’t seem to want to go in the basket right now.
