Things were starting to look up for the Toronto Raptors as they had rebounded from their worst stretch of basketball in a year and a half and were the clear winners of the trade deadline, adding two pieces in Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker to help vault them back into eastern conference contention.
That was until the news broke Monday that their All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry will miss the next 4 to 5 weeks and potentially the remainder of the regular season to have surgery on his wrist.
Raptors' Kyle Lowry out indefinitely, aims to return for playoffs. All-star guard to have wrist surgery Tuesday. BG: https://t.co/07K8lhfhu2
— CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) February 27, 2017
This is a huge loss for the Raptors, Lowry is the heart and soul of their team, the engine that makes everything go. Losing Lowry almost ensures that they will finish no better than the No. 4 seed where they are currently at and will more than likely no only not win the division, but not have home court in their 1st round and have a looming match-up with the Cavaliers in Round 2 if Lowry is able to return and they are able to find their rhythm to advance past round 1.
Lowry is in the midst of the best season of his NBA career, basically averaging 22-7-5 while shooting a career-high 46 percent from the field and a shade under 42 percent from three-point range.
The Raptors will be asking a lot of Cory Joseph and inexperienced young point guard Delon Wright to be able to replace Lowry’s production, leadership and play making ability.
The timing of this injury is especially rough as the Raptors essentially went all in on contending this season, this will slow down the integration of Ibaka and Tucker into the team and their offense as well.
Here’s to hoping the Raptors get Lowry back for the postseason at the very least.
