The inconvenient truth about Kyle Lowry’s breakout in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals is that it began not only before the fourth quarter, but before Dwyane Wade put the Miami Heat on his back.
Yes, before D-Wade produced the surge which led the Heat to a flat-footed 68-all tie at the end of three quarters, and before Toronto big man Jonas Valanciunas left the game with an injury, Lowry had already begun to warm up against the Heat. He stuck two three-point shots in the early part of the third quarter, creating more points (6) than he scored in the entire first half (4).
It’s true that with Miami big man Hassan Whiteside out — due to an injury which appears to be more serious than Valanciunas’s ailment — Toronto needed to feed its big man, who was responsible for preventing a 2-0 series deficit heading to South Florida for the weekend. Nevertheless, Toronto expects — and needs — more than four points from Kyle Lowry in a half. If Lowry had been his normal self — the one last seen in the middle of March — Toronto would have blown the lid off the first half and built a lead in the vicinity of 20 points. As it was, the Raptors settled for a nine-point advantage, and when Lowry hit those two threes early in the third, he had already begun to make the declaration that he was sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Enough with the talk about the jump shot.
Enough with the speculation about how the drained elbow had turned him into an unremarkable shooter since March 20.
Enough with postgame press conferences posing the same tired, worn, necessary, and ultimately unanswerable questions.
Yes, Lowry didn’t start cooking in Miami only in response to D-Wade’s third quarter or the Valanciunas injury; it would create an easier story, more of a tidy feel-good narrative if he had. Nevertheless, he still rebounded. He still bounced back.
What’s most important about Lowry’s Game 3: On a day when a big improvement would have earned him a fair amount of admiration from teammates and journalists alike, he didn’t settle for “really good.” Lowry became transcendent — transcendent in relationship to the game itself; to an in-form Wade; and very possibly this entire series.
Kyle Lowry (33 points) & Dwyane Wade (38 points) duel in #RAPTORSvHEAT Game 3, won by @Raptors!https://t.co/uQ4zw13CkC
— NBA (@NBA) May 8, 2016
Here’s the essential point to realize about the magnificence and magnitude of Kyle Lowry in Game 3 on Saturday in Miami: If he had posted the 19-point line he had after three quarters, thanks to his 15-point explosion in the third, almost everyone watching this root canal of a series would have marveled at Lowry’s ability to lift himself out of the muck that has been Raptors-Heat. If Lowry had finished with a 25-point line and a 3-of-6 mark from 3-point range, what pundit or blogger would have been hard on him after the game?
Yet, 25 on 3-of-6 triples would not have won this contest for the Raptors, a team in search of its first-ever conference finals appearance.
A really good line would have left Lowry immune from criticism on a day when DeMar DeRozan continued to infuriate Raptors fans and neutral parties with his shot selection. However, isn’t that the essential quality of great players? They don’t want to shield themselves from criticism. They want to do whatever it takes. Sometimes, that means taking the ball and having everyone else get out of the way.
Basketball is a team game, we all say to ourselves. Yet, few things about this 5-on-5 sport capture our imagination more than an individual duel.
Bird versus Dominique in 1988.
Jordan versus Barkley in 1993.
Kobe versus Iverson in 2001.
Wade versus Dirk in 2006 and 2011.
Wade versus Lowry in 2016.
That Lowry won this particular duel — after the barrenness and brutality of one game after another — represents one of the most remarkable achievements we’re going to see in these playoffs.
Lowry’s floor had been so low in the first two games of this series, and for much of the first round against the Indiana Pacers, that by the end of three quarters on Saturday in Game 3, Lowry had already earned the right to be seen as a player who was “back.”
Yet, merely being “back” wasn’t good enough for Lowry. That, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, marks a special competitor, the kind of person who engages in a duel with a legend and matches his 29-point second half in Miami.
Toronto needed every last one of those points; every last three-pointer; every last display of excellence to overcome Wade. The Raptors didn’t really overcome the Heat, whose role players — Joe Johnson (0 for 10 on threes in this series) and Luol Deng (4 points on Saturday) — have turned into pumpkins. They overcame Wade, who — very much like Lowry — realized he had to be the man for his team. It wasn’t team basketball, but sometimes, great individual players must in fact become selfish in order to advance team interests.
That Kyle Lowry successfully advanced his team into a 2-1 series lead, answering Wade’s best game on Flash’s home floor, will be talked about in Toronto for generations…
… as long as the Raptors finish off a Miami team which won’t have Hassan Whiteside healthy (playing or not) anytime soon.
