Kyle Lowry Credits ‘Balls of Steel’ After Shot Below the Belt
“Obviously, I’ve got balls of steel”
The defending champion Raptors narrowly avoided falling behind 0–3 in their series against the Celtics on Thursday night, and Kyle Lowry was a big reason why.
Lowry led all scorers with 31 points and came up in the clutch with an incredible pass to find OG Anunoby for the game-winner at the buzzer.
Lowry played a ridiculous 46 minutes in the game. He sat out for 91 seconds late in the first quarter and never subbed out again—even after taking a hard shot to the groin. With five seconds left in the third, Celtics guard Brad Wanamaker drove to the hoop for a layup attempt and Lowry rose to meet him. Wanamaker’s knee hit Lowry square in the crotch, and Lowry was clearly in considerable pain. (Lowry was the one called for the foul, though.)
But he never left the court. He was back on the floor as Wanamaker shot his free throw and for the final Toronto possession of the quarter.
Asked after the game about playing through the pain, Lowry had a simple explanation.
“Obviously, I’ve got balls of steel,” he said. “Just trying to win the game. That’s where you find the energy. That’s what that was, just trying to win the game. No gas at all. Balls of steel, and just win.”
The Raptors are lucky Lowry wasn’t down for the count because there aren’t many guys in the league who can make the pass he made to set up Anunoby’s buzzer beater. Raptors coach Nick Nurse drew up a play he borrowed from Hubie Brown that featured three Toronto players serving as decoys while Anunoby snuck along the baseline to the far corner of the court. That required Lowry to throw a perfect sky-high pass that landed right in Anunoby’s hands so he could get the shot off with just 0.5 seconds on the clock.
This court-level angle does an amazing job of showing just how on-the-money Lowry’s pass was.
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