Following a hard-fought Game 7 loss to the Boston Celtics that ended the Toronto Raptors‘ postseason in the second round, Kyle Lowry spoke candidly his team’s nearly 15-month run as defending NBA champions. “I enjoyed this year. The emergence of Pascal (Siakam). The emergence of Freddy (VanVleet). Just being around these guys, these young guys,” […]
Following a hard-fought Game 7 loss to the Boston Celtics that ended the Toronto Raptors‘ postseason in the second round, Kyle Lowry spoke candidly his team’s nearly 15-month run as defending NBA champions.
“I enjoyed this year. The emergence of Pascal (Siakam). The emergence of Freddy (VanVleet). Just being around these guys, these young guys,” Lowry told reporters moments after the 92-87 defeat. “Now we got a couple free agents, I’m going to be really happy for these guys that’s going out into free agency and going to get paid.”
The Raptors’ roster could look considerably different entering the 2020-21 season, with key rotation pieces VanVleet, Serge Ibaka, and Marc Gasol all set to hit unrestricted free agency. VanVleet, in particular, is expected to garner significant interest and a hefty payday on the open market.
Though Lowry is disappointed his team is leaving Orlando despite having “more to give,” the floor general expressed bittersweet emotions about finally flying home.
“I get to go see my babies, man. I’ve been going damn near three months without seeing my kids,” Lowry said. “I don’t want to be going home, I really don’t, and I know my kids don’t want me to be home because they want their daddy to win another championship, but I get to go see my babies.”
The All-Star point guard finished his 14th NBA season with averages of 19.4 points, 7.5 assists, and five rebounds across 58 regular-season games. The 34-year-old went on to average 17 points, 5.6 assists, and 6.3 rebounds in 11 postseason contests.
Lowry is under contract with the Raptors through the 2020-21 campaign.Tags:
It’s a best of three now. The Celtics were a half second away from taking a 3-0 stranglehold on the Raptors in Game 3. Kyle Lowry and OG Anunoby said ‘Not just yet’ stealing Game 3 and a completely different looking Raptors unit took the floor for Game 4. This time there was no buzzer-beater […]
The Celtics were a half second away from taking a 3-0 stranglehold on the Raptors in Game 3.
Kyle Lowry and OG Anunoby said ‘Not just yet’ stealing Game 3 and a completely different looking Raptors unit took the floor for Game 4.
This time there was no buzzer-beater needed as the Raptors pulled away for a 100-93 win to even up the series.
The Raptors were the clear aggressors in this game continually building leads but to the Celtics credit continually having to re-establish those leads after the Celts response.
But there was a different look in Toronto from the very outset.
No one between games was willing to say the Raptor swagger was definitively back given how little of Game 3 they actually controlled but it’s a much safer statement following Game 4.
The three-point game, a staple of their offence was back led by that stellar backfourt of Fred VanVleet and Kyle Lowry who were a combined 9-for-20 from distance. Serge Ibaka off the bench was a perfect 4-for-4 from behind the arc.
Were it not for Pascal Siakam’s 2-for-13 from distance, the team average would have been other worldly.
HOW ABOUT SERGE
Ibaka really isn’t getting the credit he deserves in this series.
With Gasol not quite himself until about Game 3, it was Ibaka who was so important just to give the Raptors a chance in Game 2.
With Gasol looking more like himself in Game 3 and again in Game 4 (despite the foul trouble) Ibaka has ccontinued to play big minutes as Nurse’s first or second man off the bench.
Nurse has been talking up Ibaka’s shooting since the re-start began and for good reason. Ibaka has been averaging just under 16 points a game in the playoffs for the Raptors in just over 24 minutes.
“Serge plays like that, we’re always a better team,” Lowry said afterwards. “When our bigs played the way they did tonight — Marc (Gasol) hit a big shot for us, Serge does like he did tonight, it gives us a big lift.”
NOT CELTICS’ NIGHT
The Celtics have been so good through three games it was almost unbelievable watching them shooting makeable three after makeable three Saturday night and missing.
The Celtics were just 7-for-35 from three in the game with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, their two big gunners going a combined 3-for-17.
Obviously credit the Raptors defence but sometimes the ball just isn’t falling and it seemed like that was the case for a good portion of the night for
the Celtics, but Brown in particular.
The Raptors on the other hand hit 17 threes in the game and while they weren’t real happy about their mid-range game – “We shot like crap from two” was how Fred VanVleet put it, they had a decent night from behind the arc. Lowry still thinks they can be better overall.
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“I still think we’re not close to where we could be shooting it at but we made some threes in a good stretch in the third quarter, made some big ones in the fourth,” Lowry said. “You know, the way they play defence is: they contest really, really hard, but we’ve just got to shoot the ball with confidence and continue to shoot the ball with confidence and keep getting better. If we get one of those games where we get really, really hot, it makes a big difference.”
STEVENS’ TAKE
Celtics head coach Brad Stevens was rather adamant that the Celtics did carry a bit of a grudge into Saturday’s game after the way Game 3 ended.
“I don’t think there’s any question that we were (angry) and guys played exceptionally hard and did a lot of good things,” he said defending his team. “But the other team is out there, too. And they made it very tough on us. When you miss, as we know, it can kinda cascade on you, and that’s what happened tonight. We gotta handle that better. I was pretty encouraged at halftime. We were shooting awful and it was 49-49. But it’s part of it. Gotta play better, gotta shoot better, gotta feel better. Gotta be ready to go on Monday night.”
Pre-game Stevens revealed injured forward/guard Gordon Hayward was due back on the NBA campus on Sunday at which point he will have to undergo a four-day quarantine. But as for a return, Stevens tamped down expectations. “He’s not going to play any time soon,” he said … The Miami Heat are a win away from sending the East’s No. 1 seeded Milwaukee Bucks home from the bubble. News yesterday had Giannis Antetokounmpo questionable for Game 4 with an ankle sprain which makes things infinintely tougher for the Bucks who would be without their leading scorer and leading rebounder … Speaking of the Heat, and we only bring this to your attention to start stoking the fire in case the matchup eventually comes to pass. But long-time Heat beat writer Ira Winderman was asked in his daily exchange with readers who he thought the Heat would rather face in an Eastern Final should they eventually finish off the Bucks. Winderman who knows better than most not to mess with the basketball gods, began by reminding his reader the Heat had not yet qualified for the Conference Final. Only after that did he finally admit the Heat would probably prefer to see the Raptors who they handled better in the regular season than they fared against the Celtics. But don’t let that stop you from starting your Miami-doesn’t respect-Toronto file.
The Boston Celtics will likely be without the services of Tremont Waters in Game 1 of their second-round series with the Toronto Raptors, who have upgraded Kyle Lowry to probable.
The Toronto Raptors have officially listed starting point guard Kyle Lowry as probable for Sunday’s Game 1 of their second-round matchup with the Boston Celtics, but the short break created by the Milwaukee Bucks’ protest on Wednesday has actually made the Celtics’ health a little worse.
While it has moved the team a little closer to the dates wings Gordon Hayward and Javonte Green will potentially be available to return to action, both would be seen as extremely unlikely to make it back on the court during the time frame this series is expected to occur within.
Neither Waters nor Green were expected to play significant minutes in this series, even if their loss does ding some of Boston’s relatively thin bench; how Boston will play with Hayward out and Lowry available figures to be a much more critical theme in this series.
And we are less than a day away from finding out how it begins, with tip-off scheduled at 1 p.m. Eastern Time this Sunday, August 30th.
The Toronto Raptors announced Monday that guard Kyle Lowry has been diagnosed with a left ankle sprain.
Lowry underwent an MRI on the NBA Campus in Orlando after the injury, which occurred in the first quarter of Sunday evening’s game. His condition will be updated as appropriate.
Lowry averaged 19.4 points, a team-high 7.5 assists, 5.0 rebounds and 36.2 minutes in 58 games with the Raptors this season. In six games during the NBA restart at Disney, he averaged 16.7 points, 5.7 assists, 6.8 rebounds and 32.9 minutes.
In the first round of the NBA Playoffs vs. Brooklyn, Lowry posted averages of 12.5 points, 4.8 assists and 7.0 rebounds in 29.9 minutes. He scored in double figures three times, including 21 points in Game 2, and had one double-double against the Nets.
The first round is in the rearview mirror now for the Raptors, but the path ahead potentially got a little tougher. The Raptors did the expected and handled the undermanned Nets in quick fashion for the first sweep in franchise history, but nine minutes into the Game 4 knockout punch, a 150-122 win, the Raptors’ […]
Raptors complete the sweep but Lowry injury has everyone a little nervous
Author of the article:Mike GanterPublishing date:Aug 24, 2020 • Last Updated 11 hours ago • 4 minute read
Raptors guard Norman Powell dunks against Jarrett Allen of the Nets during the second half in Game 4 of the first round of the NBA playoffs at The Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020. KIM KLEMENT / POOL / Getty Images
The first round is in the rearview mirror now for the Raptors, but the path ahead potentially got a little tougher.
The Raptors did the expected and handled the undermanned Nets in quick fashion for the first sweep in franchise history, but nine minutes into the Game 4 knockout punch, a 150-122 win, the Raptors’ worst fears may have been realized.
Kyle Lowry, on the move, stepped on Chris Chiozza’s foot and turned his left ankle just as he reached the Nets three-point line. Lowry, as is his custom, was up to argue the lack of a foul call on the play but did so limping. He stayed in the game for the next possession but at the first stoppage jogged, again limping, directly to the locker room, not to be seen again.
Without imaging equipment at the arena in Orlando, Lowry was taken off-site (but still in the bubble) to have the ankle looked at. He is scheduled to have an MRI on the arch of his left foot on Monday.
Raptors guard Kyle Lowry battles for the ball against Jarrett Allen of the Nets during the first half in Game 4 of the first round of the NBA playoffs at The Field House at ESPN Wide World Of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020. KIM KLEMENT / POOL/Getty Images
Head coach Nick Nurse knows exactly what losing Lowry, going into a series with Boston, will mean.
“I won’t be very comfortable without Kyle out there, I will say that. He’s certainly a big engine for us,” Nurse said. “But I would say, I think that we play a system or a style where lots of guys are involved and it’s not like, yeah, we’re going to miss all those great, great things Kyle does if he doesn’t play, but somebody else has got to take shots and play defence and play tough and do the things that he does to make up for it. Or we do it by committee, that’s probably a better way.”
But Nurse was not ready to concede anything to the injury gods just yet.
“It would hurt us a lot,” Nurse said. “All I can say is, you guys know how big a cog he is to this whole thing. He’s our most experienced, toughest leader we got. I don’t want to speculate and answer a million questions on whether he’s playing or not until we know whether he’s playing or not and we’ve got a few days for that.
“But I would imagine this: It’s going to be a hell of an injury to keep him off the floor. It’s not going to be a little thing. He’s going to try to figure it out. He played, I don’t know how many, 14 or 16 straight playoff games last year with a totally messed up left thumb, running through the Finals last year. It’s going to take something pretty serious to keep him out.”
Lowry’s absence for the bulk of Game 4 further complicated things for the Raptors who were already making do without Fred VanVleet, who picked up three quick fouls in the first seven minutes and would not return to the game until the third quarter. Throw in some early foul trouble for reserve guards Norm Powell and Terence Davis and one might think the Raptors were in a little trouble.
But if this team has shown one consistent trait this year, it is being able to absorb a blow that might dismantle others and find a way to win. Sunday night that trait was in full view.
Powell and Serge Ibaka came off the bench and helped the Raptors put up 77 in that first half, which is a franchise record for a playoff game.
Powell finished with a playoff-best 29 points in 24 minutes on 9-of-14 shooting. Right with him was Ibaka, who 27 points and a team-best 15 rebounds in just 20 minutes. VanVleet returned to the floor to start the second half but wound up playing just 19 minutes.
Playing without key men is nothing new to the Raptors. They’ve done it all season with everyone on the team missing time at some point due to injury with the exception of OG Anunoby and Davis.
“One thing about us, we know we have a lot of guys who can play,” Ibaka said after the game. “We don’t really worry about who’s going to score 30 or 40 every night. We are not that type of team where one guy is going to score 30 or 40. So we just come and try to play basketball: Move the ball, whoever’s hot, we’re going to go with him, and that’s why we are always there, even when we have guys down.”https://www.youtube.com/embed/AhS3CnGZn2k?embed_config={%27relatedChannels%27:%20[],%27autonav%27:true}&autoplay=0&playsinline=1
As good as Powell and Ibaka were, the Raptors bench as a whole deserved a ton of credit in this one. It scored 100 points with contributions and scoring from all eight reserves that took the floor — a Raptors and an NBA record.
The old playoff mark was 86 set by Dallas. The all-time mark for bench points from a team in a game was set by Golden State with 94 in 1977.
The Raptors win sets up the much-anticipated second-round matchup with the Boston Celtics who themselves completed the sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers earlier in the day. The two Atlantic-division foes have never met in the playoffs.
The Celtics lost guard Gordon Hayward with an ankle injury of his own earlier in the playoff round but they still boast a tough lineup with Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kemba Walker, and now likely Marcus Smart joining the starting five with Hayward out.
Already this season the two teams have played four highly entertaining games with the Celtics winning three including one since the re-start.
Kyle Lowry emerged from a prolonged absence just as you would expect.
The Raptors star was feisty and as combative as ever, which is about par for the course when he’s dealing with media types as he was on Monday.
When Raptors GM Bobby Webster happened to stroll past the media location and spotted Lowry being interviewed, you could hear him teasing his team leader about finally relenting and sitting down for one of these never-ending Zoom conference calls with the scribes back in Toronto.
“Don’t worry,” Lowry fired back at his GM. “They won’t hear from me for another month.”
Clearly four months away from the media has done nothing to change his attitude towards us.
But Lowry admits there has been change in him. Really, how can anyone say they haven’t changed as we’ve all been going about our daily lives in a much different way since the pandemic began.
For Lowry, it has meant the first time in his children’s lives that he has been able to be at home with them in Philadelphia at this time of year and really experience family life and all that comes with it.
“I got to put my kids to bed almost every single night,” Lowry said. “I haven’t done that in their whole lives. To be home and be around them and to see them grow and to help them with their schoolwork and to sit there with them on Zooms, to be able to be there and interact with them all the time, it helped me grow even more as a father, as a man. It made me appreciate my wife a little bit more and my family a lot more because my kids, they’re a handful. But they’re awesome. My time at home was great.”
Basketball, the love of his life long before he found his wife and had his kids, was on the periphery for a while, but it was still there too.
Lowry, in fact, wound up having a rather large say in how this NBA re-start would go.
Initially, he was a member of the competition committee, but that role morphed into a working group consisting of Player’s Association president Chris Paul along with Lowry, Russell Westbrook, Jayson Tatum and Toronto native Dwight Powell, who worked hand-in-hand with commissioner Adam Silver in developing the health and safety protocols for the recently opened NBA campus at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
“It kind of fell into my lap a little bit with how it happened,” Lowry admitted. “But it was interesting to come up with some of the concepts and to talk that over, and understand (not just) what we’re trying to do but how we’re trying to do it, and make sure that it’s done the right way for all the players, coaches, and it’s safe and in the most healthiest way we possibly can do it.
“I think that we’ve done a good job so far with the safety aspects, the health aspects. I think there’s definitely going to be some adjustments that need to be made, but that’s the one thing about our league and our professionals, is that we make adjustments on the fly and we’re able to.”
Lowry has been on the campus since the team arrived on Thursday and likes what he sees.
“I think our protocols and our health and safety measures have been top notch. I think this thing will work perfectly, I think the league, the player’s association has done a great job, a phenomenal job of making sure that we’re doing everything that we can possibly do to make sure that we’re healthy, we’re safe and we’re in an environment where we can be successful and to do our jobs at a high level,” Lowry said.
Now obviously not everything about the setup is ideal. First and foremost, for it to have a chance of working, the actual number of bodies inside the NBA campus had to be kept to a minimum and that means no family members until after the first round of the playoffs, at which point 14 of the 22 teams will have already been sent home.
“It’s going to suck,” Lowry said of being away from his family. “But my boys understand the sacrifices that have to be made to live the type of life that we live, and they understand that their dad has to go to their job and he has to go to work.”
Lowry spent about 15 minutes on the call, but very little of it was about his own game and where that stands now.
Head coach Nick Nurse filled in those gaps for Lowry, pointing out that Lowry arrived in tip-top shape and has been putting in the kind of work one would expect of a guy who is seriously looking at repeating last year’s championship run.
“He’s practising hard. Shooting the ball at an incredible rate. He looks great,” Nurse said.
But as good as Lowry has already been this year prior to the shutdown, Nurse said there’s a very real possibility that there is another level to be reached in the coming playoffs given how fresh he is after that long break and certainly given the changes in this year’s team from last year.
“I think … he knows he’s got to be kind of a main cog, right?,” Nurse began. “He’s got to, you know, produce offensively for us. You know he’s always going to play hard and make the defensive plays, but he’s got to be a main factor in the offense and he kind of carries himself that way I think this year a lot more.”
In a year with plenty of growth for a man already well into his career, it would only be fitting to find some more at the most important time of the year.
Toronto’s aspirations of a repeat may depend on it.
‘WE NEED TO BE HEARD FROM’
When Lowry wasn’t enjoying family life in Philly or helping the NBA find its restart button over this pandemic, he was in the streets fighting the fight of social injustice through protests and marches.
Lowry said that part of this really abnormal year is only just getting started.
“We are in a time where we need to keep that conversation going,” he said of the protests that began following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. “We need to be heard from. We need to speak loud and clear. We need to understand that things need to be done for the situation to be changed, laws to be changed.
“Opportunities need to be given for things to be better. It wasn’t just about one person. One person kind of set it off, but a lot of other people have gone through this (trauma) of getting killed by police. This time we needed to speak up and needed to do something.
“For me to be a part of that, that’s who I am. That’s how I am,” Lowry continued. “That’s how I grew up. I grew up a Black man in America. It’s definitely a tough thing to grow up that way, because you never know what could possibly happen to you. You never know if you’re going to make it out.
“For me to be able to talk to you guys is a blessing. So for me to be able to do that, it’s my right, my duty and my honour to represent the Black culture.”
(21-38) CHARLOTTE HORNETS, 99 VS. (42-17) TORONTO RAPTORS, 96 SCOTIABANK ARENA FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2020
TORONTO RAPTORS QUOTES
NICK NURSE (HEAD COACH)
How did the shooting woes tonight impact the game? We put ourselves in a position to win; we sure did. We did put ourselves in a position to win, even though we didn’t shoot it very well, we were dominating the fourth quarter. We had our chances.
How did you see that last play? I didn’t see it. I didn’t see it. I was looking at something else.
What do you think of the team’s play with several players missing? It was difficult. The glass was hard. They were pounding us pretty hard on the glass. I thought, again, the big thing when you’re shifting around a lot is it’s going to look disjointed at times and it did. I thought we found some chemistry. I always say it will grow during the game even though it’s only one game. It will grow it a little bit. I thought we found some things and they made some big shots down the stretch. We bottled them up really well and they threw some deep ones and the ball sure bounced their way. We made some really good defensive plays that didn’t turn out very good for us.
Did you plan to play Norman that much? I didn’t think those guys on the bench were what they needed to be tonight. It was hard. There was nothing from Terence and Matt. Chris had a good second stint. It was hard. I ran a lot of those guys a lot of minutes. I would’ve liked to have balanced that out a little bit, but I didn’t feel like we could. I just didn’t think we could.
What did you think of Norman’s play? Yeah, I thought he was good. I think it was tough for him. I think the conditioning probably was tough, but he played great, I thought. He looked pretty good out there.
How hard was it to overcome the lack of size on the boards? It was problematic for a while. It felt like we were giving up some offensive rebounds, but I’m not so sure we didn’t do a pretty good job. They were hard to get. Every defensive rebound we got was like a battle down there. I think we did a pretty good job. We got most of them. We did give up some; it just looked like a challenge. It probably wears on you a little bit when you’re having to work that hard just to keep all those guys living in the paint off the glass a little bit.
PASCAL SIAKAM (24 points, nine rebounds and four assists)
On a tough night offensively… Obviously I was missing everything; layups, free throws, I mean something was going on, threes. At the same time we put ourselves in a position to be in the game and gave ourselves an opportunity to win.
Were you happy with the looks you were getting? Yeah, I think we had pretty good looks. I think in the second half we got a little better. At the same time, we couldn’t get in rhythm. It’s hard to play like that. Our defence was pretty good. We got stops. We shot a lot of free throws. I think overall, when shots are not falling we have to find other ways. We did a decent job of staying in the game and having an opportunity to win.
Did you decide in the second half to work the basket? I had to do something. It’s not like I shot a lot of threes. I think I shot five threes. I was just missing a lot of layups. I was just like, “I’m just going to keep driving. Whatever happens, happens.” Obviously, we missed a lot of free throws. I’m not happy about that. At the same time, it was one of those games and you’ve got to continue to find ways to impact the game. Find ways to continue to play. It happens. It’s just one of those games. We have to continue to get better. We know that. We just flush this one out. We try to go out in the next one and play better.
KYLE LOWRY (21 points, six assists, six rebounds)
Was it a matter of shots not falling tonight? We had great looks. It’s two games in a row we’ve struggled shooting. We were minus Freddie tonight, minus Serge tonight and again without Marc. Norm gave us a big boost coming in. Pascal missed a couple. We have to be a little bit better offensively, but I think we got great shots. We just missed a lot. In the last two games we’ve missed a lot of shots.
Did the lack of size hurt on the board tonight? I think we need our bigs there. I think Rondae did a great job of trying to battle. We just didn’t have the complete effort tonight.
On losing back-to-back games… No. It hurts. You don’t want to ever lose, but we gotta grow from it. We’ve got to learn from it. We’ve got a big trip coming up for us to kind of get back to being a team, being a group and being together. This is a great chance for us to get out there on the road and take it day-by-day and game-by-game.
CHARLOTTE HORNETS QUOTES
JAMES BORREGO (HEAD COACH)
On the defensive and rebounding effort tonight… It was one of our best defensive performances and rebounding games of the season. Very hostile environment, they are a fantastic team, a well-coached team; they know what they are doing. So this is a big time win for us. To hold them to 34 percent shooting the ball and 47 defensive rebounds, our goal is 35, so fantastic job, great effort on both ends of the floor.
On what you said to the team in the third quarter timeout when the Raptors were making a run… To just get back to how we were playing earlier and it really just starts one possession at a time. Don’t think about what just happened, let’s move forward and play the next possession. I think with a young team that’s really important. You can get unraveled, and we’ve had a few of these moments this season where a team is on a run and then we don’t stop it. We let an eight point run become a ten, twelve, fifteen point run and we just talked about playing the next possession. Making shots always helps. Our guys hit some big shots to break some of those momentum segments for Toronto. Give our young group a lot of credit.
On the team performance… I would say this is our most complete game end to end. We had a good win in Dallas a bit ago, it feels like ages ago, but I felt for the most part from end to end we were in this game. We were fighting, even though we had a few hiccups along the way, this was probably our most complete 48 minute game of the season.
TERRY ROZIER (18 points, six assists, six rebounds)
On tonight’s win… I (have) never won here in my five years. I always got beat by at least 20 or more, so it was just good to get the win for myself and for our team. We needed this. We won (our) last game, so we’re just looking to keep building. It’s a special team this group that we just played against, so every time we get a chance to beat a special team (it) makes us feel good.
On tonight’s defence… I feel like we were in there. We helped each other out. We showed bodies. We showed length from the beginning of the game. We showed it all 48 minutes. Obviously they got guys, like (Pascal) Siakam, who’s special, (Kyle) Lowry, who makes special plays, and like I said, they’ve got a great group. We just dug deep and we just stayed with it and we pulled it out.
On shooting the technical foul shots… You have to tune all that (noise) out. I shoot at least 100 free throws a day when there’s nobody in the gym, so you just try to keep that mindset and just treat it like there’s no one there. I was able to ice the game, but like I said, that just comes with repetition (and) being in the gym shooting a lot of free throws.
P.J. WASHINGTON (15 points, nine rebounds)
What was Bismack Biyombo’s message to everyone in that timeout? Just keep playing. Guys were kind of getting down on themselves and he just said … keep playing and keep fighting. We’re in the place we want to be and (there’s) not a lot of time left, but we still have a chance to win this one.
On tonight’s win… I think it says a lot because we stayed together and kept fighting. Even though they came back in the game making shots, we still kept our composure and came out there and just continued to play. I think that was big for us going forward.
BISMACK BIYOMBO (13 points, 11 rebounds)
What does tonight’s win say about this young group? I think our young guys are growing in general. We’re playing team basketball. Guys are trusting each other. Obviously we are going to continue to make mistakes. That’s part of this journey … We stuck together. Obviously through the tough times when they made their run, we still found a way to control the game. Toronto is a great team. They are a championship team, so for us it was a good challenge. We were able to learn from this, grow, and obviously we will watch more film tomorrow and correct our mistakes and continue to move forward.
VILLANOVA, Pa. — Saddiq Bey scored 23 points and Justin Moore added 21 to lead No. 12 Villanova past St. John’s 71-60 on Wednesday night. The Wildcats (22-6, 11-4 Big East) had trouble shaking St. John’s until late on a night the program honored former star Kyle Lowry. Lowry, a five-time All-Star guard for the… […]
Kyle Lowry tried to drive through George Hill’s legs. That didn’t work. (VIDEO) Milwaukee’s George Hill, a physical 6’3″ defender, was up on Toronto’s Kyle Lowry out on the perimeter. Lowry, pinned, had no good options. So, Lowry tried to go through Hill’s legs. Not dribble through and run around, Lowry tried to tunnel his […]
The view from left field 