Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan Finding Momentum at the Right Time for Toronto Raptors

The Toronto Raptors never lost confidence in struggling All-Stars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan—mostly because they trust their talents, partly because it’s too late to rework the offensive pecking order.

That trust was rewarded early and often Wednesday night during the Raptors’ 99-91 Game 5 win over the visiting Miami Heat.

DeRozan erupted for 34 points, six more than he tallied in Games 3 and 4 combined. And for the first time in the 2016 NBA playoffs, he connected on half of his field-goal attempts (11-of-22).

Share Tweet

Lowry’s outing needed a closer inspection to be fully appreciated.

He didn’t clear the 40 percent mark (9-of-25) and did finish with the same number of shots and points (25 apiece). But his floor game was superb (10 rebounds, six assists and three steals), his crunch-time shooting kept the Heat at arm’s length and Toronto’s wild on/off split with Lowry fully encapsulated his value (plus-25 with him, minus-17 without).

“They made shots,” Dwyane Wade said, per Raptors Republic’s Blake Murphy. “They’re All-Star players. They’re gonna get going at some point.”

Share Tweet

This is what Raptors fans had been waiting to see after witnessing these same guards pilot the most successful season in franchise history. Both were All-Stars and nightly 20-plus-point scorers. Combining for 59 points may not have happened every game, but sharing the offensive load in a Toronto win was a regular occurrence.

That was, of course, until the playoffs arrived and sapped both guards of the qualities that made them great. Prior to Game 5, they’d spent the bulk of their postseason run masquerading as brick-laying volume scorers.

…

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com