{"id":6031,"date":"2017-04-19T17:54:14","date_gmt":"2017-04-19T21:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprobasketball.com\/?p=6031"},"modified":"2017-04-19T17:54:14","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T21:54:14","slug":"kyle-lowry-injury-blessing-disguise-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2017\/04\/19\/kyle-lowry-injury-blessing-disguise-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Lowry Injury a Blessing in Disguise for Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Kyle Lowry<\/a><\/strong> was sitting on the bench favouring his right wrist in mid February, there were obvious concerns for The Toronto Raptors<\/a>. He would go on to shrug it off and finish the game, eventually play in the All-Star game that weekend. That took the fear out of the Raptors nation, for the time being at least.<\/p>\n

That was until tests later revealed\u00a0Lowry would require surgery to repair his injured wrist. His main shooting, ball dominant wrist and would miss the next 21 games. The Raptors missed Lowry down the final stretch of the regular season, with the team in a battle for the Atlantic Division title with the Boston Celtics<\/a>\u00a0and first place overall with the reeling Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>. Perfect timing.<\/p>\n

Normally,\u00a0an injury to a\u00a0point guard and one of the faces of a franchise going down with an injury would be a significant blow.\u00a0However, after acquiring power forward Serge Ibaka <\/a><\/strong>and shooting specialist P.J. Tucker<\/a><\/strong>, the Raps had enough around them to not only survive, but thrive without their star point guard.<\/p>\n

Winning 3 straight games after the All-Star break and four of their next five contests, Toronto proved they weren\u2019t just a 1 or 2-man operation. Yes, DeMar DeRozan<\/strong> <\/a>had a career season while carrying the team on multiple nights, and several secondary players elevating their play to cover for their lost star. But without Lowry, the expectation was to keep afloat in time for the playoffs.<\/p>\n

This was not the case.<\/p>\n

The Result <\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Raptors went 18-7 in Lowry\u2019s absence, on rout to finishing 3rd<\/sup> in the conference. This\u00a0set up a first-round playoff series with the Milwaukee Bucks. Of course, during that stretch, Lowry was missed, and his teammates weren’t shy about admitting it. “He’s the team,” DeRozan said. “He runs us, and he showed it tonight. There’s no words I can put into context that will explain what it means to get him back.”<\/p>\n

This came after Lowry\u2019s first game back. The star point guard played 42 minutes and had 27 points and 10 assists.\u00a0The Raptors overcome a 20-point first-half deficit in a 105-102 victory over the Detroit Pistons.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s even more important for the Raptors. More important\u00a0than finishing 3rd.<\/sup> More important than staying competitive within their conference.\u00a0What’s more important than all of\u00a0that,\u00a0the Raps\u00a0learned how to play without one of their franchise players. And win in the process.<\/p>\n

How This Year Can be Better than Last<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Toronto made it all the way to conference finals a year ago, eventually losing to Cleveland in 6.\u00a0With all of that success a year ago,\u00a0The Raptors may be in an even better position this year to make a run at the NBA championship. Think about it.\u00a0They have\u00a0the forefront of the offence in tact with Lowry, DeRozan and center Jonas Valanciunas<\/a><\/strong>. They made crucial\u00a0additions of Tucker and Ibaka, and a year of deep playoff experience. Would it be that shocking to see the Raps back in the Conference Finals? Or possibly deeper?<\/p>\n

The feeling remains the same as it did at the beginning of the season though:\u00a0A rematch between The Golden State Warriors and The Cavaliers in the NBA Championship\u00a0seems all but set.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s why they play the games.<\/p>\n

Stranger things have happened before. All it takes is for one team to go on a hot stretch. One favourable matchup, and the whole narrative changes. Taking down The King and Chef Curry is no easy task. However, with a more complete team, a year of deep playoff experience under their belts, and learning to play without a crucial superstar in their lineup, don\u2019t be surprised if we see The Raptors in unfamiliar territory come June.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo<\/h4>\n

Toronto Raptors Kyle Lowry (L) runs by Orlando Magic Victor Oladipo during the NBA Global Game London 2016 basketball match between Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors at the O2 Arena in London on January 14, 2016. AFP PHOTO \/ GLYN KIRK \/ AFP \/ GLYN KIRK \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0(Photo credit should read GLYN KIRK\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kyle Lowry injury from February has been a blessing in disguise, as it is now paying dividends for the Raptors in the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1916,"featured_media":2290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"1492617600","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,62],"tags":[65,350,319,96,279,128,318],"class_list":["post-6031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raptors","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-demar-derozan","tag-kyle-lowry","tag-nba","tag-p-j-tucker","tag-serge-ibaka","tag-toronto-raptors"],"modified_by":"Harrison Marcus","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1916"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}