How Kyle Lowry’s slump damages Raptors’ chances

Can the Raptors compete against the Heat when Kyle Lowry is struggling, to put it mildly, with his shooting? Here’s what happens when he’s off.

There aren’t many things I dislike more than joining the herd. When you come to our site, you should be looking forward to reading a healthy dose of contrarian or even outlandish opinions, but ones backed with reason and facts.

Yet here I am, forced to tell you what you’ve already heard everywhere else: Kyle Lowry is shooting the ball so poorly, he should be benched in favour of Cory Joseph. Lowry’s disastrous playoff performance to date is the biggest reason why the Toronto Raptors were barely able to slide by the Indiana Pacers (and were outscored!), and why the Raptors are in arrears after the first game of the Eastern Conference semi-finals against the Miami Heat.

Lowry’s only made 3-ball of Tuesday night’s loss was the Shot Seen Round The World, i.e., his half-court swish to send the game into Overtime.

Here’s a sobering thought: he makes that shot about once every 500 tries, and Tuesday night was that once. Yet his other six attempts were routine for a shooter of his calibre, and he missed them all. His world is upside-down.

Any number of effects are a result of Kyle’s troubles. He doesn’t get to the free-throw line, because he’s not a threat. In Game One the Heat just let him fire away, then grabbed the rebound. DeMar DeRozan doesn’t need any more license than he’s already got to shoot from anywhere at any time, but Kyle’s troubles render DeMar’s maddening habit a necessity (at least in his own mind). Jonas Valanciunas is normally perfectly happy to attract a double-team then pass out of it, but there’s no value in doing that now. Kyle can’t hurt the opponents from out there.

The Heat will pack the paint tonight, and render DeMar and Kyle’s lashes to the basket ever less likely to succeed. As if it’s not tough enough already to attempts floaters over the outstretched arms of Hassan Whiteside, our guys have to contend with sagging perimeter defenders.

Kyle put himself through a well-publicized post-game workout into the wee hours of the night. We can only hope he’s discovered whatever bug has invaded his mental software. I’m forced to assume it’s not a hardware issue because he claims his right elbow is fine.

The Raptors are back in an all-too-familiar position. They have lost the first game of a playoff series for the ninth time in ten tries, and must win tonight. Chris Bosh is officially shelved for the playoffs, so the Raptors don’t need to worry about him making some sort of grandiose and triumphant return. Furthermore, both Dwyane Wade and Whiteside appeared to have endured Game One despite knee injuries.

The Raptors, by contrast, are healthy and without excuses.

We have little choice but to hope Lowry is back to his dominating self in Game Two. If not – if what he’s produced so far is the new normal – the Raptors season will come to a screeching halt very soon.