When Kawhi Leonard chose to join the Los Angeles Clippers last summer, it appeared the Toronto Raptors‘ championship window had been slammed shut as quickly as it had been opened. When the Raptors, behind coach Nick Nurse and significant improvement from Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell, finished the segmented regular season with the league’s second-best winning percentage — ahead of Leonard’s Clippers and LeBron James — it did little to dissuade the concerned rumblings about their chances of repeating.
Sure, they’re a great regular-season team, the thinking went, but who’s going to replace Kawhi as the clutch bucket-getter every championship team needs? Would it be Siakam? Maybe VanVleet?
After his spectacular performance in the Raptors’ 125-122 Game 6 double-overtime win over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night, Kyle Lowry has emphatically announced that he’s the closer Toronto was looking for, and he was right under our noses the whole time. While putting up 33 points, eight rebounds, six assists and just one turnover in 53 (!) minutes, Lowry grappled the Raptors to a Game 7 to keep the quest to repeat alive for at least one more game.
Lowry had 15 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, and he iced the game with a contorting fadeaway jumper to give the Raptors a four-point lead with just under 12 seconds left to play.
His performance was eerily reminiscent of another Game 6 — in last year’s Finals, when Lowry scored 21 first-half points in the series-clinching win over the Golden State Warriors — and it makes you wonder why Lowry wasn’t immediately pegged to fill Leonard’s clutch shoes.
Even leading up to Game 6 you could hear the pundits screaming, “Siakam’s gotta step up.” “Siakam needs to be the best player on the Raptors.” “They’re not winning a title with Siakam playing like this.” It seems as if Lowry’s (largely undeserved) reputation for shrinking in the moment during the Raptors’ three consecutive postseason beatdowns at the hands of LeBron James and Cleveland Cavaliers made us ignore him.
Lowry’s playoff history is often coupled together with that of his former teammate and current best friend DeMar DeRozan, but Lowry’s stats from those postseason runs were solid — 17.9 points, 6.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds, 35 percent 3-point shooting. And just last week, with the Raptors facing a potential 3-0 deficit to the Celtics, Lowry came through with 31 points, eight assists, six rebounds and threw perhaps the most clutch pass in Raptor history to find OG Anunoby across the court for the game-winning 3-pointer.
What Lowry’s done, and what every clutch playmaker needs to do, is display the willingness to adapt. In Game 3 he made up his mind to go to the rim early and often, essentially removing Toronto’s horrid outside shooting from the equation. Just look at the very first possession of the game.
In Game 6, however, Lowry took a different approach. The Celtics were loading up the paint on his drives, so Lowry did it from the outside, knocking down 6-of-10 3-pointers and making a wide array of mid-range jumpers.
In Game 3, Lowry took 12 shots at the rim en route to his 31 points. In Wednesday’s Game 6, he took just three shots at the rim on his way to 33. Side by side, the shot charts tell the story.
This is the sign of a veteran player who will take what the defense gives him rather than forcing the issue. Coach Nick Nurse and the Raptors consistently worked to get Kemba Walker switched onto Lowry in Game 6, and he made them pay the price. The debate about whether Lowry is a Hall of Famer has raged during this series, but it’s hard to argue against him after what he’s done over the past couple of weeks.
“I love having the privilege of standing there on the sideline to watch it, because it is something to see and watch. I don’t ever really take it for granted,” Nurse said on Sunday of Lowry’s play. “It’s a great skill to be able to play that hard. It’s a skill that often isn’t talked about. … I’ve said this before and it’s the highest compliment I can give him: I’ve never seen anybody play harder.”
But the Raptors have learned that playing hard isn’t enough. Eventually you need a closer to finish things off and make clutch plays. Last postseason it was Kawhi Leonard. This year it’s Kyle Lowry. And he’ll need to be just as brilliant down the stretch in Friday’s Game 7 if Toronto is going to advance.
“We had to work hard for this win,” Lowry said after Game 6. “For us, personally, that’s what we do — play hard. We go out there and play every possession like it’s our last and find ways to pull out victories.”
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
