Toronto’s offense without Kyle Lowry has already been devoid of style points most nights, but the team has still been able to uphold league-average scoring efficiency over the last two weeks — mostly thanks to DeMar DeRozan’s nose for buckets.
Night’s like Friday were always going to be an inevitable side effect of Lowry’s absence, however. In a 105-99 loss to the Atlanta Hawks, the Raptors found little breathing room against the NBA’s fourth-best defense.
There were moments throughout the first three and a half quarters where it seemed like a Raptors’ breakout was imminent.