NBA Daily: Kyle Lowry’s Aggressiveness Is A Mixed Blessing For The Raptors

Kyle Lowry suffered a bone bruise in his lower back during the Toronto Raptors’ 114-113 overtime win against the Brooklyn Nets on Monday. Coach Dwane Casey has alternately praised Lowry for his frequent forrays under the basket and expressed trepidation throughout the season.

“He reminds me a lot of Gary Payton, who threw his body around, and he has to play that way to be effective,” Casey told reporters after the game. “And we love it when he does because he was in there getting rebounds over their guards. He got clipped on that one, but hopefully he’s okay.”

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted earlier today that Lowry is day-to-day with the bone bruise, which is positive news for a Raptors team currently on a five-game win streak and trailing only the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference standings.

Toronto guard Kyle Lowry is day-to-day on a return from a bone bruise on his tailbone, league source tells ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 9, 2018

Raptors forward and leading scorer (25.3 points per game, seventh in the NBA) DeMar DeRozan was asked about the difficulty of holding off the Nets in overtime without the team’s starting point guard.

“It sucked not having Kyle on the floor, especially in an overtime moment like that,” said DeRozan. “You rely on Kyle. It’s tough when he’s not out there but we’ve got to figure it out.”

The Nets were able to erase a Raptors lead and force overtime thanks to a series of made threes. One area where Casey will look for improvement while the team waits to get Lowry back is communication within Toronto’s switching defense.

“Our lack of communication, our not talking to each other, causes a lot of problems,” said Casey. “If we’re going to be a switching team, we’ve got to be a great talking team. And we had too many mishaps where we weren’t talking, weren’t communicating on switches, and it came back and bit us.”

Casey also talked about the challenges of defending in transition in the three-point era.

“We felt like we could dominate the boards with JV [Jonas Valanciunas] in there as a big,” said Casey. “And when you’re in that situation you still have to close out to three point shooters if they have a five-man that can shoot the three. If their big is running the floor, beating you down the floor, that means all five men have to sprint back.”

Casey also took time to praise Nets point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who is enjoying a breakout season with 13.5 points, 6.5 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game.

“That’s the best bargain in this league,” said Casey. “That young man has really improved his game. He’s taking advantage of an opportunity. He’s producing [and] he’s playing like a big-time point guard.”

Lowry was reportedly cracking jokes and smiling as he left the arena Monday night. His day-to-day status comes as a huge relief for a Toronto team that has opened up a three-game lead in the standings over the third-place Cleveland Cavaliers. The Raptors will hope to get Lowry back soon as the team continues to chase the Celtics — owners of a league-best six-game win streak — in the standings.