[ad_1]
Toronto Raptors goaltender Kyle Lowry has appeared at the Fiserv Forum for the first game of the Eastern Conference finals. wearing a big blue kitchen glove on his left hand to help the circulation in his injured thumb, but you would never have known that he had something wrong with him. After a tough seven-game series against the Philadelphia super 76ers, Lowry made the match easier against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.
The possession that was the best example came in the third quarter. After a stop, Lowry accelerated, used an inverted pivot to beat Eric Bledsoe on the baseline, kept his dribbling in the manner of Steve Nash when Brook Lopez helped, then gave the ball to Marc Gasol and moved to the perimeter for a depth catch-and-shoot 3, that he pierced without hesitation:
This is the Lowry Peak: aggressive, intelligent and ubiquitous. He was in the flow, free and rhythmic, one step ahead of the defense, ready to seize every opportunity that presented itself to him. Thanks in large part to his energy, the Raptors offense resembled that of the vast majority of their first-round series against the Orlando Magic and only small portions of the Sixers series. Lowry was not perfect – he refused to take a sharp look at a late possession that ended in a turn-over of Danny Green that led to a Lopez dive – but, for most of the night, he had the impression of being it.
In 40 minutes, Lowry played his most complete and effective playoff game, scoring 30 points on 10 shots against 15, with eight rebounds, two assists and one steal. He scored seven goals in three playoff career streaks in nine attempts and was the only Raptor to score goals in the fourth quarter. His teammates managed a 0 to 15 combined.
That was the kind of effort needed in Toronto against a team looking to put Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam uncomfortably. He did the magic trick of Lowry that you're used to – a dramatic stop as the ball fell out of reach and that one charge against Khris Middleton to thwart a quick break came to mind – and he was exerting constant pressure on the Bucks & # 39; defense. If the Raptors had not blocked all their throws in the fourth quarter, gave up 15 offensive rebounds and allowed Milwaukee to have too many points in transition, it would have been enough to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
"It's been a long time since he has lived on one of those evenings when, every time he showed up, we thought he'd come out of it." said Toronto coach Nick Nurse to the press after the defeat of 108-100. "Whenever he dropped tonight, you said to yourself: 'Ca comes in.' And it was good to see. Because we saw a lot in the regular season and all the rest. "
Even in the regular season, Lowry was rarely as productive as that. The acquisitions of Leonard and Gasol and the emergence of Siakam allowed Lowry to rule out his scoring role. He only reached the 30 point mark once this year. It is encouraging that Lowry was able to assert himself so forcefully, as it did not necessarily look like an advantageous confrontation on paper. He played poorly in each of the three regular season games that he faced against Milwaukee, without scoring in 34 minutes at a meeting in December. Bledsoe is a powerful, fast and annoying defender, just like George Hill, and Hill gave Lowry trouble in the playoffs three years ago.
"They have a whole bunch of guys, kind of sports guards, and they run a bunch of different guys on him," said the nurse. "They're doing a decent job of eliminating his hits, so I thought it was good that he could get the ball as much as he did. [his shots]. "
Given that the Raptors scored 16-0 in the first quarter, with a maximum of 13 points, and that Lowry defeated Bledsoe so well, and considering that the Bucks had 11 points to 44 at 3 points , the conventional wisdom is that they could not afford to let the game spin. Indeed, as Milwaukee made his comeback and ended up taking the lead, it was impossible not to think that they were losing an inspired effort. "It's bad when you lose like that," Lowry told the press, "but we had a chance and we have to learn from it." The playoffs do not forgive and all Toronto can do is try to be better on Friday.
If there is anything that Lowry and the Raptors can learn, it is that when they are disciplined in defense, decisive in offensive and prevent the Bucks from appearing in court, they may look like to the best team. When they slip into one of these areas, they can quickly lose control of their situation. If they even ride the series before going home, the idea that they ruined everything in the first game will seem ridiculous. If they do not, it will be difficult to avoid dwelling on what could have been. Although this game led by Lowry represented what Toronto could be better, it also represented something less optimistic: an extremely thin margin of error.
[ad_2]
Source link