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J.J. Redick on Kyle Lowry leaving court early: 'It is inexplicable'

Ben Rohrbach
·Senior NBA writer

We've been here before. Sixteen days ago, to be exact.

Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry was mired in a historically awful shooting slump following a Game 1 loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals, so he spent all night searching a solution, shooting alone on the floor of an empty Air Canada Centre, and then shot 7-for-22 in Game 2.

Only his Raptors salvaged Game 2 against the Heat. The Cleveland Cavaliers are a different beast — as they reminded everyone in another blowout victory on Thursday night — and Lowry is still searching.

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While the two-time All-Star found his stroke in time to salvage Game 7 against Miami, scoring 35 points on 20 shots to go along with nine assists in a commanding statement win, he now has more turnovers (9) than made field goals (8) or assists (8) in Games 1 and 2 of the Eastern Conference finals. His 8-for-28 shooting performance, including a 1-for-13 clip from distance, is one reason Toronto the series, 2-0.

Midway through another dreadful playoff performance, Lowry left the court with 2:35 remaining in the first half, telling ESPN's Doris Burke he retreated to the locker room early to blow off some steam. At that point, Lowry was 1-for-6 from the floor with four turnovers. Meanwhile, the Cavs were in the midst of closing out the half on a 16-2 run — the last two points of which Lowry was present for after checking back into the game with 19 seconds remaining before the break. By then, the game was all but over.

It was the equivalent of shooting in an empty arena, only this time his therapy session came in-game.

"Just to kind of decompress, get back there, kind of relax my body and relax my mind," Lowry told the media. "And knowing that we had a chance to kind of make some things [happen], I wanted to get myself going and get my teammates going and get the team going. It was nothing more than just kind of to decompress, breathe and get back out."

Lowry added, "I"ve done that plenty of times. It's just now with the magnitude of the situation, it shows a little bit more." Maybe so, but Los Angeles Clippers guard J.J. Redick — serving as a studio analyst for ESPN (and doing it quite well, I might add, since he's not afraid to speak his mind) — had a different take.

"It is inexplicable, and I don't know that there's a good reason for it," said Redick. "Kyle is the heart and soul of that team. He's got to get himself going, but he's got to get himself going on the court and with his teammates. There's really never a reason to leave your teammates."

Those are pointed words, particularly from an active player who will face Lowry two times next season — and especially from a player whose team was ousted two rounds earlier in these playoffs — but that doesn't mean they're not entirely accurate. In order for the Raptors to have any shot against the Cavs this series, as we pointed out prior to Game 1, Lowry had to dominate Cleveland counterpart Kyrie Irving.

Instead, Irving has been scintillating, scoring 27 and 26 points in Games 1 and 2, respectively, on a combined 39 shots, despite going 1-for-6 from 3-point range. If that trend continues, this series will be over by Monday. So, the question now is whether Lowry can find himself between Games 2 and 3, the way he did with a 33-point effort on 19 shots in a key Game 3 victory against Miami two weeks ago.

We know he's searching, because we've been here before.

But is he searching the right places? Maybe Redick has an answer for that, too.

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Ben Rohrbach

is a contributor for Ball Don't Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!