The Toronto Raptors are 4-5 since the All-Star break and the reason is their offense, which is scoring just 98.3 points per 100 possessions in that time, 24th in the NBA.
What’s wrong with the offense? The head of the snake is in a slump. All-Star starter Kyle Lowry is shooting just 33.3 percent in his last five games and 26.1 percent since he played on the big stage in New York. He’s also been turning the ball over a little more. And it’s not just him, DeMar DeRozan is shooting 36.4 percent since the All-Star break and 16 percent from three.
To their credit, Lowry and DeRozan owned up to their poor play speaking to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
Asked to describe his game at the moment, Lowry had a quick response: “Me? I’m trash,” Lowry told reporters. “I’m trying to figure it out right now, to be honest with you. I don’t know (how to fix it), that’s why I’m in here, working hard and trying to figure out what to do to get myself back on track.”
DeRozan did not duck away from that assessment of the status of his own game.
“Right next to the trash can (that Lowry’s) is. Both trash,” DeRozan told the Sun, matter-of-factly as he signed merchandise following his media scrum.
Slumps during a season happen to everyone. Toronto is solidly in the playoffs out East and is likely ending up the two or three seed (Chicago isn’t catching them without Derrick Rose), so the first round is at home. This isn’t damaging them.
But if the Raptors are finally going to get out of the first round and making an even deeper playoff run, they need the Lowry that played so well fans voted him an All-Star starter. That he recognizes the problem and is working on it means you can bet it will be solved.