Advertisement

Kyle Lowry plays his best game of the season, but it wasn't enough


Heading to Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Kyle Lowry had to know that there would be a little bit of extra weight on his shoulders. With Kawhi Leonard out once again due to load management, the Raptors would look to the 32-year-old point guard for an offensive spark.

He did much more than that against the Pistons on Sunday night, but couldn’t come through when Toronto needed him most. With the Raptors down 109-107 in overtime, seven seconds remained on the clock when he drove towards the basketball in search of the tying bucket.

The ball refused to fall for him, though, and Detroit would go on to win 112-107.

(Getty)
(Getty)

That wasn’t something that he was used to seeing on Sunday night as, up to that point, it seemed like all of the big shots he was taking were falling.

He finished with a season-high 35 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Early in overtime, the former Villanova Wildcat dominated. He picked up Toronto’s first seven points of bonus basketball, including this enormous 3-pointer, to give the Raptors a 107-102 edge.

His side would go on to give up a 7-0 run to the Pistons and set the stage for his missed layup late.

The many Raptors fans in attendance didn’t make Toronto’s clash in Detroit feel like a road contest. It’s too bad that the Raptors weren’t able to take advantage of the energy that their travelling fanbase was feeding them early on.

With the 2014 NBA Finals MVP on the bench, Toronto’s offence struggled in the first quarter. At one point, they found themselves trailing 20-7. That’s when Lowry made it clear that enough was enough.

After hitting a jumper, he strolled down the court on the Raptors’ next possession and knocked down a momentum-swinging 3-pointer.

From there, his squad slowly began to chip away at the Pistons’ advantage. They began to find their stroke from beyond the arc and were only down three at halftime.

In the third, Lowry continued his strong shooting from deep.

Shortly after that one, the 32-year-old knocked down another triple to add to the Raptors’ slim advantage at the time.

With Toronto down five points and less than two minutes remaining on the clock in the fourth quarter, he hit yet another three and a driving layup after that to get the Raptors back within two. Solid free throw shooting from Marc Gasol and a clutch tip shot by OG Anunoby with less than 30 seconds remaining pushed the game to overtime.

Lowry went 11-for-24 from the field, including 6-for-14 from three-point land.

Detroit, led by Toronto’s former head coach Dwane Casey, improved to 2-0 against the Raptors this season. (Who can forget Casey’s priceless reaction following Detroit’s late basket to win their previous meeting in November?)

Blake Griffin put up a team-high 27 points as the Pistons move to 31-31. Toronto’s loss drops them to 46-18 and, as a result, they don’t gain any ground of the Eastern Conference-leading Milwaukee Bucks who fell to the Utah Jazz on Saturday.

Subscribe to ‘Inside the Green Room’ with Danny Green

More NBA content on Yahoo Sports