Sportsnet: Leading Raptors to playoff success next step in Lowry’s transformation
Posted April 16, 2016 11:39 am.
Last Updated April 16, 2016 11:45 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A year ago the Toronto Raptors were not in a good way, and they knew it.
They just didn’t or couldn’t say it. Even as they were spewing black smoke down the stretch on their way to a 12-16 finish in the regular season, they kept the truth at bay, intentionally or because they didn’t want to quite admit it to themselves. Even as their ugly sweep at the hands of the Washington Wizards in the first round of the playoffs stripped them bare; as their 125-94 capitulation removed any doubt, they tried to put on a brave face.
But the truth comes out over time.
“We were trash,” said Raptors all-star point guard Kyle Lowry. “We knew we were playing like trash. You’ve got to be real with yourself sometimes. Y’all were watching. We knew we were trash. … We just weren’t firing as a team on the same cylinders.”
Which in a manner of speaking was Lowry admitting he was trash — shooting 31 per cent in the playoffs is tough to hide from. As an all-star, a leader and the engine that makes the Raptors go, much of last year’s sputtering finish was laid at Lowry’s feet.
For a guy whose career had taken its share of twists and turns and missteps, it was fair to wonder where it would go from there and where the Raptors were headed.
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