Lowry’s throwback performances have not been witnessed more frequently
The Miami Heat will be significantly understaffed when they start a game for the second time in a row. Miami played the Washington Wizards on the road on Friday night with just seven players available and fell 107-106 in overtime. The Cleveland Cavaliers are 10-point favorites when the Heat visits them tonight.
With a triple-double, Kyle Lowry deserves praise for keeping the Wizard’s game close. The Wizards ought to have destroyed Miami. Lowry averaged 22 points in the fourth quarter without Jimmy Butler when playing the Los Angeles Clippers on the road last November. Miami also fell barely short at that time.
But that raises the question: Why haven’t we seen it more frequently if Lowry can give such a legendary performance?
There have been ups and downs during Lowry’s time in Miami. When Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo were injured last year, he performed admirably and helped a team of primarily undrafted guys to some impressive victories. But a personal matter forced him to miss a lot of time, which ruined his season.
He said he was preparing for the “real season” when people questioned why he wasn’t taking many shots. Still, due to a hamstring injury in the playoffs’ opening, he could not assist Butler as Miami had planned when they conducted the sign-and-trade for him. He received criticism from Pat Riley for not being in elite shape.
We are back where we were. Lowry played 51 minutes and produced a triple-double when Miami needed him most. The problem for the Heat isn’t that they lost to Washington on Friday night; Lowry had yet to perform well enough to improve Miami’s record up until that point.
Riley and Erik Spoelstra knew Lowry, who made six straight All-Star showings from 2015 to 2020, would not be joining them. They did, however, reasonably ask for more than he provided. As I have stated, looking back, it was a squandered opportunity to pass up trading for Chris Paul in 2019. We will consider the Lowry sign-and-trade the proper choice if Lowry offers throwback performances more frequently. But the current appearance contradicts that.
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