DeRozan and Lowry Finally Do the Heavy Lifting Together

This article originally appeared on VICE Sports Canada.

Before Wednesday night's Game 5, Toronto Raptors director of sport science Alex McKechnie broke out an unusual treatment for an injury, as he is occasionally wont to do. Cameras caught DeMar DeRozan, he of the injured right thumb, grimacing in what looked to be considerable pain as McKechnie wrapped a shoelace tightly around the sore digit. It is believed that this was done to reduce swelling, as DeRozan has struggled badly shooting free throws in two of the three games since he hurt the thumb in Game 1.

It hurt like hell, DeRozan confirmed to a small group of reporters. McKechnie strolled through the locker room.

"Alex, you might need to start selling shoelaces," DeRozan hollered.

To wrap up his joint press conference with Kyle Lowry, following the Raptors' 99-91 win, DeRozan addressed the magical laces again.

"A thousand dollar shoelace," DeRozan said. "A thousand dollar shoelace."

It has taken all sorts of procedures to get DeRozan and Lowry, the Raptors' two struggling offensive fulcrums, right. The work has targeted the body, with DeRozan's thumb and Lowry's elbow being the biggest issues, and the minds, with Lowry admitting that he was turning down shots and DeRozan having the opposite problem, eschewing a plan B. All regular season long, the Raptors thrived with Lowry and DeRozan as twin pillars of a guard-oriented offence, dispatching opponents with pick-and-rolls, pindowns, transition 3-pointers and free throws. When the defence collapsed on them, then the supporting cast picked up the slack, with a big man filling the lane on a roll or a shooter reigning in a 3-pointer.

That is the order it is supposed to go in, though: Stars shine, defence adjusts, the world opens up for everyone else. That, obviously, has not happened in the playoffs. Wednesday night was not a pure version of that, but it is certainly as close as the Raptors have come in the postseason.

Lowry was everything as the Raptors sprinted to their best start of the series. In fact, it was disturbing how important he was: The Raptors outscored the Heat by 24 points in his more than 20 minutes on the floor in the first half, and gave 14 of those away in the remainder. He was taking 3-pointers when the defence went under screens, reading every passing lane and making the right reads in transition.

In the third quarter, as the rest of the offence fell apart, DeRozan finally got some of the mid-range shots that he had been taking in volume to fall. He had 11 of the team's 20 points in the frame. As the barrage came, a lot of the shots looked like approximations of the same ones he had spent the first four games missing. However, there seemed to be a little more assertiveness—DeRozan was getting to the middle of the floor more often instead of taking a handoff, falling behind a screen and taking a contested jumper.

"He was just persistent in coming off (screens) and trying to get his shot," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "He used his athletic ability, speed and quickness. He wasn't hesitating. He was very decisive and that's the way he has to play."

Yet, the Raptors nearly fell apart at the end of the game, because they seem to be forgetting that 56-win teams can win playoff games decisively. The offence totally stagnated, and perhaps this was because, as often happens in the playoffs, the Raptors' rotation was shrinking. Casey played nine players, but really leaned meaningfully on just seven. One of those players, DeMarre Carroll, left the game in the third quarter after a wrist injury, throwing his status for the rest of the series into doubt.

Accordingly, the minutes added up for several players. Patrick Patterson played more than 40 minutes, three minutes of excess of his season high for a regulation game. Bismack Biyombo played nearly 38 minutes. Lowry played more than 41, as the results of playing without him have been well established throughout the postseason. Not surprisingly, with the fatigue and the Raptors' offensive woes in the playoffs, the shots became flatter, the rolls to the rim scarcer and the off-ball movement, which got DeRozan two layups early in the game, virtually non-existent.

That is when Lowry took over. With 75 seconds left and the Raptors up by three, Lowry closed out on Goran Dragic expertly, forced an uncalled travel by beating his former teammate to his spot under the rim, and watched as Dragic threw the ball away as he lost his footing. On the next possession, on another seemingly dead possession, he drilled a 3-pointer from Stephen Curry territory. And after Dwyane Wade had responded with a 15-footer over Cory Joseph and his technically perfect defence, Lowry hit a fallaway 12 footer over Josh Richardson. DeRozan iced the game with four free throws, and did not miss a single one of his 11 attempts on the night. Lowry and DeRozan combined for 59 points, seven more than they have had in any playoff game this year.

"My guy (DeRozan) over here just told me, 'Be big. Be aggressive. Be me,'" Lowry said.

"That's what you're imploring everyone to do, is to do what you do," Casey added. "Whether it's DeMar coming off (screens) being decisive, K-Low coming off being decisive, (Biyombo) having a presence defensively, Patrick doing what he does—it's so important to be decisive. Don't overthink it, don't let the noise slow you down."

For the most part, the Raptors have done that in the playoffs, with the exception of their two offensive stars. That the Raptors' ancillary pieces have been able to be themselves minus the usual production from Lowry and DeRozan is rather incredible. Over the last few games, that production has fallen off: Jonas Valanciunas is out for the series, and Carroll might be, too. Patterson's shot was flat Wednesday. Biyombo did not look like himself until Valanciunas went down. Norman Powell's fleeting minutes have been wildly shaky.

Finally, DeRozan and Lowry were there to bail those guys out, instead of the other way around.

"They're our guys," Casey said. "We can disparage them all we want to and talk about how bad their shooting is. You don't forget how to score the basketball. It's going to come back. When? You hope it's within this series, but it's going to come back."

Now, do they have one more game left in them?