Kyle Lowry<\/a> would take the floor or not for a final regular-season bow in Toronto.\u00a0When the Raptors fell behind by 33 early in the third quarter, it looked like the circumstances would be right for Lowry \u2014 very much a mentor in his 20th\u00a0season \u2014 to make his sixth appearance of the year and his first at Scotiabank Arena since Oct. 25, 2024.<\/p>\nIf the game was close, he wouldn\u2019t have left the bench. This was a game the Sixers needed to win and that\u2019s not in Lowry\u2019s wheelhouse anymore as he approaches his 40th\u00a0birthday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But with the game mostly out of hand in the fourth quarter \u2014 even though the Raptors had cut the lead briefly to 15 with 3:43 to play, the “We want Kyle” chants got louder. Finally, with 1:57 to play, the Raptors waved the white flag and subbed out their starters, opening the door for Lowry to take the floor.<\/p>\n
The roar was predictably loud and undoubtedly sincere. The North Philly kid who never wanted to be a Raptor when he arrived for the 2012-13 season, was greeted as what he eventually became: a legend, a champion and the most revered player in franchise history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, the Raptors getting blown out 115-102 (the final score not reflective of the play for the first three quarters anyway) on Monday wasn\u2019t all bad.<\/p>\n
Had the game been closer, Lowry and the crowd at Scotiabank Arena wouldn\u2019t have had their moment:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happened organically,\u201d said Lowry, who got three triples up but couldn\u2019t get one to fall. \u201cI think tonight our team came out with extreme focus and that was part of their plan, to make sure I got that opportunity. I got some great teammates and a great coach who understands the moment. It was a good team win for us and I got the opportunity to experience one of the greatest basketball moments of my personal career.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Sixers’ focus was real, although it helps to have Joel Embiid (27 points, eight rebounds, four assists) and Paul George (15 points, six assists) return to the lineup on the second night of a back-to-back. And it helps even more to have emerging superstar Tyrese Maxey to drive it all. The Sixers point guard scored 18 of his 33 points in the first quarter to get his team started on the right foot, and they never missed a step.<\/p>\n
The Raptors got Brandon Ingram back from his sprained thumb but were still without Jakob Poeltl (back) and RJ Barrett (ankle). Ingram finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists but there wasn\u2019t too much help behind him, although rookie Collin Murray-Boyles (12 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals) continues to impress and two-way player AJ Lawson took advantage of some extended minutes to score 14 points in 17 minutes and help provide what spark the Raptors had in the second half.<\/p>\n
The win improved Philadelphia to 22-16 while the Raptors fell to 24-17. The Raptors remain in fourth place in the Eastern Conference but are only a half-game up on the fifth-place Sixers, one game behind Boston in third and 1.5 games up on Orlando, who hold the sixth and final playoff spot in the East.<\/p>\n
The Lowry moment aside, it was an otherwise less-than-stellar performance and given that the Raptors shot 10-of-69 from three over the two games against Philly, it\u2019s not like the Raptors are a smooth-running machine just at the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
How can the Raptors not be pleased? After 41 games a year ago, the Raptors were 10-31 and focused only on player development and lottery balls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 The Raptors are on pace for 48 wins, which would be their best total since Scottie Barnes’ rookie season in 2021-22, back when Sixers coach Nick Nurse was running the show in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Before Monday\u2019s debacle, the Raptors established themselves as one of the NBA’s better defensive teams, with their sixth-best 112.1 defensive rating.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Barnes has established himself as an all-star and likely all-NBA candidate. He was recognized as the Eastern Conference player of the week on Monday. He\u2019s averaging 19.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks per game and is the only player in the NBA with at least 700 points, 300 rebounds, 200 assists, 50 blocks and 50 steals this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 After an early season that was interrupted by some minor injuries and a couple of illnesses, Murray-Boyles, the ninth\u00a0overall pick who was the Raptors’ reward for their rebuilding efforts last seaso,n has emerged as an impact player midway through his rookie season. Prior to Monday, Murray-Boyles was averaging 8.7 points, 9.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.4 blocks in just 27 minutes a game over his past seven games, five of them starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sandro Mamukelashvili was a little-known big with no significant record of production in 191 NBA games sprinkled across four seasons with two teams when the Raptors signed him to a modest two-year deal for $5.2 million. He\u2019s now recognized as one of the better free agent signings of the off-season. The affable Georgian came into Monday\u2019s game averaging 10.3 points, 4.9 rebounds per game on career-best efficiency.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we\u2019re making significant strides,\u201d said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. \u201cPlayers individually are getting better. There is a lot of reason for us to look and be satisfied with what we have achieved. But that doesn\u2019t change the fact we have to go another (41) games, and every night is a hard match-up for us and this is the best league in the world. So we have to be constantly hungry and humble at the same time.<\/p>\n
There are some areas of concern, among them:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 The offence in general (the Raptors’ offensive rating is 19th\u00a0and sliding) but in particular their three-point shooting. After their clang-fest against the Sixers the Raptors are tied for last in three-point percentage with no obvious relief in sight.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 And while the Raptors can take some encouragement that they are 14-6 in ‘clutch games’ where the score is within five with five minutes to play, it\u2019s a tough way to live. It\u2019s easy to imagine some regression there. What will the Raptors’ second-half record look like if some of the fluky element that comes with playing close games \u2014 being on the winning end of three straight coach\u2019s challenges in the final minute of regulation in their overtime win over Philadelphia on Sunday, for example \u2014 flip against them?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 And what if Poeltl\u2019s back issues don\u2019t clear up? He missed his 11th\u00a0straight game Monday and has only played six minutes since Dec. 15. He\u2019s the only big the Raptors have and in that sense irreplaceable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a wonderful first half, at least when measured against expectations. And even if the 41st\u00a0game was not representative of the 40 that came before, having Lowry take his (likely) final turn at Scotiabank Arena more than made up for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But it will take all the Raptors have and then some to keep the momentum going as the hill gets steeper in the second half. It would be a shame if this were the high point.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The halfway point of the season. A time to reflect. Well, not that much time. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-410436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}