As of late, the Toronto Raptors have struggled. Really bad actually with a 6-12 record in their last 18 games since the All-Star break. There are a few glaring reasons for these recent struggles in Canada. The mysterious fourth quarter benching of big man Jonas Valanciunas to the struggling play of their defense as of late but most notably, the head of the Raptor, Kyle Lowry, who has been fighting injury through the latter part of this season.
Now it seems like the injury has hit its plateau and Lowry will be taking a seat on the bench again. Not the best news for Lowry on his birthday.
Following from TSN.
Kyle Lowry has no timetable for a return after re-injuring his back.
The Raptors point guard is out indefinitely due to his back “twisted the wrong way” in the Toronto Raptors 109-104 loss to the Detroit Pistons Tuesday night.
Lowry had missed the Raptors previous two games after initially suffering the injury against the Minnesota Timberwolves. His return to the lineup lasted just 10 minutes.
After the game Lowry said he would not attempt to rush back from the most recent set back.
“I’mma make sure I’m completely and fully healthy before I even step back on the floor,” a solemn Lowry told reporters.
There is no timetable for Lowry’s return over for the upcoming final 11 Raptors games, so we might not see one of the Eastern Conference All-Star starting guards for the time being and possibly not until the playoffs.
The Raptors missed an opportunity to clinch a playoff spot on Tuesday, but remain in the drivers seat for the Atlantic Division with a commanding 10.5 games and can clinch the division and a playoff spot with their next win.
The real issue is their standing at fourth in the Eastern Conference. They currently trail the Chicago Bulls by a half game for third but lead the also struggling Washington Wizards by 2 games. They are lucky though for one reason. Due to the NBA’s playoff rules, anyone of the 3 teams that wins their division, gets home court at least for the first round by being seeded in the top 4, so they won’t have to sweat that.
Unless they go in a dramatic tail spin and lose all of their last 11 games.
In reality, Toronto won’t have to worry about losing home court but they should be concerned about not getting that 3 spot in the East. Unless they want to just avoid LeBron James as long as they can then the 4 seed is exactly where they want to be.
