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 He battled a knee injury and foul trouble to lead the wounded
Raptors to an 87-79 win over the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center to
even the series at 2-2. Game 5 is Wednesday at the Air Canada Centre
in Toronto.
"He's dealing with a lot right now, and he came through with flying
colors," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said of Lowry. "He fought through
foul trouble, a little bit of adversity throughout the game and
still came through and gave us 22 (points). The most important thing
is that he's playing the end of the game with five fouls. It was big
for us."
Lowry sank a crucial sky hook over Nets forward Kevin Garnett with
1:13 left in the fourth quarter to give the Raptors an 85-79 lead.
"I think that was the first time (I made a sky hook) this year in a
game. I did it in practice like once," said Lowry, who also buried
two free throws with 30.5 seconds remaining to put the finishing
touches on the win. "It's something I work on in the summertime, and
it's something that just happened. I came into a situation where it
was needed."
Casey added, "It was a momentum play for us. It was huge."
Guard DeMar DeRozan scored 20 of his game-high 24 points in the
first half, helping the Raptors open up a 17-point lead in the
second quarter.
Later in the game he was instrumental in Toronto's defensive game
plan against Joe Johnson. The Nets guard entered the game averaging
a team-high 23.7 points per game in the series, but he was
double-teamed every time he touched the ball and was limited to
seven points on seven shots.
"With Kyle, I knew I had to pick up the offense early, so I did that
and came out aggressive," DeRozan said. "I knew they were going to
change up and start trying to get the ball out of my hands. I knew I
could do some things on the defensive end, and that's what I did,
especially on Joe."
Forward Paul Pierce had 22 points, forward Mirza Teletovic scored 12
points, guard Deron Williams had 10 points and six assists, and
Garnett contributed 10 points for the Nets, who went scoreless for
the final 4:57 and shot 3-for-17 in the fourth quarter.
"I thought we just got out of character," Nets coach Jason Kidd
said. "We were trying to do it individually instead of making a play
for our teammate. They picked up a couple of charges, we missed a
couple shots we made in the past. We'll go back and look at how we
can get better."
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Casey, meanwhile, lauded his team's defensive play down the stretch,
highlighting the Raptors' eight consecutive stops, including a pair
of charges drawn by DeRozan. The Nets were called for three straight
offensive fouls in the final three minutes. "I thought DeMar did a good job of really holding his spot,
holding his position in the post and really turning it over
defensively when they were taking him out offensively," Casey said.
The Nets, meanwhile, were out of sorts offensively, getting away
from their game plan and rushing shots late. Pierce, though, isn't
concerned heading back to Toronto.
"I think it's just an attitude adjustment," Pierce said. "Doing it
faster, doing it harder and doing it better. The game plan is there.
We just have to do it a lot better."
NOTES: Nets G Joe Johnson is one of two players in the playoffs who
is shooting 50 percent or better from the field with a minimum of 12
field-goal attempts. Miami F LeBron James is the other. Johnson also
was 15-for-15 from the foul line before missing two of four attempts
Sunday. ... The Nets had an NBA-playoff-low 31 turnovers through
three games. Brooklyn gave the ball away 16 times in Game 4. ...
Nets G Deron Williams made just four of 12 shots Sunday, and he
missed all five of his 3-point attempts. ... Only two reserves
scored for Toronto. F Patrick Patterson and G Greivis Vasquez each
finished with nine points.
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