Lowry Going To NBA All-Star Game For The Second Straight Year

For the second straight year, the host city will have a player representing its team in the starting lineup. He’s the quintessential underdog, a late bloomer. The fan, wearing a Raptors jersey, was all smiles.

But there was clearly no stopping the Raptors star once he sparked Toronto’s 40-point third quarter with an 18-point run, a performance supplemented by 3-pointers from Luis Scola, Terrence Ross and Kyle Lowry.

He hadn’t developed a three-point shot, which severely limited his efficiency and his ceiling as an offensive player. The All-Star reserves will be announced next Thursday night. Lowry’s supporters, who were especially active on social media in the eleventh hour, have developed a knack for the comeback. The Raptors’ twitter account gave out some awesome prizes to gain Lowry votes. With 367,472 votes heading into this week, Lowry trailed Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving by more than 32,000 before making a surge. “I am thankful to all the great Raptors fans across Canada and throughout the National Basketball Association”. DeMar DeRozan is averaging 23.1 points and 4.5 rebounds while Kyle Lowry is averaging 20.9 points and 6.5 assists. Derrick Rose was very good in defeat, scoring a game-high 29 points for the Bulls.

“But I really do like him”. I think they’re at 124 wins over 2 1/2 seasons (and I’m pretty sure of my math on that one) and between them they have simply carried the franchise to the best prolonged stretch ever. Unfortunately, then he came into our conference! He’s everywhere on the court, doing everything and he’s so fun to watch. He may never spend an entire fourth quarter punishing opponents in the post (like Nowitzki did against the Celtics). He could have been an All-Star, but instead he was jettisoned over the summer, traded to Toronto for a conditional first-round pick.

“There are people more deserving than I am”, Irving said. While Zeller was able to play some passable defense on the big man, he went 2-6 in his 7 minutes of action. “I’m not going to come out like a Ray Allen or anything, but if it’s there I’m going to take it”.

His evolution hasn’t just taken place on the hardwood.

“That happens”, Scola added. “When you’re not hesitating it makes it a lot easier”. DeRozan leads the league in drives per game with nearly 12 and shoots a fantastic 52 percent when he puts the ball in the floor and gets to the rim, per* a href=”http://stats.nba.com/tracking/#!/player/drives/?sort=DRIVE_FG_PCT&dir=1&CF=DRIVES*GE*5″ * SportVU data. He was single. Now, he’s got a family, he’s got babies. Avery Bradley completed an 8-0 run to lift the lead back to nine with 1:57 left.

DeMar DeRozan’s teammates know exactly what to do whenever the Raptors guard gets into a groove. “We were just getting beat to balls left and right”, Stevens said.

“Am I going to call everybody up on telephone, you mean?” “We’re just out there playing with confidence”. We’ve worked on it for four years now.

“I have not even thought about that, I’m not even concerned about that”, Casey said when asked about it Friday before Toronto earned its seventh-straight win, 100-81 over the injury-hobbled Miami Heat.

One of them made a compelling case last night, too.