The Nobody-Believes-In-Us Raptors Aren't Satisfied

Kyle Lowry is more than just a scorer. To some, that is self-evident. To those that started tuning in last month, they would not have even considered giving him scorer status.

As he and his Toronto Raptors drowned in a series of missed jumpers, Lowry was clearly in his own head. While Lowry was still clearly contributing early in the postseason, he was shook when he had the ball.

"He wasn't even looking at the goal 12 days ago," DeMarre Carroll said.

Lowry admitted as much after losing Game 1 of the Raptors' seven-game series with the Miami Heat. When his shots do not fall—and when they do not fly in the first place—it becomes difficult to swoon over his intelligent, effort-based game.

Adjusting for the importance of the game, Lowry had perhaps the finest individual performance in Raptors history in Sunday's Game 7, a 116-89 evisceration of the Heat: 35 points on 20 field-goal attempts, nine assists, seven rebounds and four steals. Yet, it was finer points that again stood out.

Go deep into the fourth quarter, for example. With just more than four minutes remaining, the Raptors were up 20. If this were a team without a tortured history, you would assume that the game were over; even with this being the Raptors, the lead seemed secure. Cory Joseph had a wide-open corner 3-pointer, and he missed it, leaving the rebound to Miami's de facto centre, Justise Winslow. As we have seen him do so many times, Lowry took a wide arc around to the baseline, timed it so he would get to the ball as Winslow was looking up ahead the court, and poked the ball out of his hands. He gave the Raptors another possession, conjuring it up out of nowhere.

The Raptors scored the next five points, including two from a DeMar DeRozan jumper on that extra possession, prompting Miami coach Erik Spoelstra to remove Joe Johnson, Luol Deng and Dwyane Wade from the game, effectively ending things. The party was on.

"That's just what he do," DeRozan said of Lowry. "He's been doing it all year. He won us countless games. And he (is) doing it now. I don't expect nothing less."

Raptors fans have come to expect a lot less from their team, and justifiably. Forget the franchise's history; the Raptors have been uneven—and that is charitable—all postseason long. Even as Lowry and, to a lesser extent, DeRozan have found their offensive games as the playoffs have gone on, the Raptors still could not put together a comprehensive performance. In Game 6 it was a bewildering inability to take advantage of their size advantage on the glass, and a total failure to contain dribble penetration. The latter was understandable if frustrating, while the former made no sense at all.

On Sunday, the Raptors had 20 offensive rebounds to Miami's seven, and shot 43 free throws to Miami's 23. After the game, John Schuhmann of NBA.com asked Dwane Casey why the Raptors were able to capitalize on the advantage that was clear as day two days after they seemed to forget they had it.

"When you can understand human nature, John, you and I we will get that business going together," Casey said. "It's the same thing we were preaching: You've got to make them pay if (we) are going to stay big. If you don't, we've got to get you out. Today, they did a heck of a job doing that."

"The goal today was 20. The goal today was to get 20 offensive rebounds," said Bismack Biyombo, saying that he and Patrick Patterson fell seven short of their target. "So we did a terrible job.

"After watching film (after Game 6), some people were not able to look at the film, including myself. At some point, you take things personally and get out there and get it done."

We know enough about basketball to know it is not simply a matter of effort and intensity, no matter how many coaches and players discuss the sport like that. There is a whole other team looking to keep you from doing what you want to do, and Patterson and Biyombo are not undeniable forces.

The moment Jonas Valanciunas and Hassan Whiteside exited the series in Game 3, however, it felt like this type of game was there for Toronto. The Heat did not have a viable traditional option up front behind Whiteside, while the Raptors did have one behind their big man. If Lowry and DeRozan's continued words about not possibly being able to shoot as poorly as they had been would finally come true, they were the better team in this series, just like they were against Indiana.

Finally, logic held up, producing a Game 7 win—any playoff win, really—that the Raptors could be proud of. A 30-11 fourth quarter over the tapping-out Heat punctuated things, but this was the type of performance those who were saying simply surviving was not good enough for the Raptors knew was out there. It was the type of performance that inspires thoughts of keeping the band together; of doubling down on the band.

And it was the type of performance that, if replicated, could put an honest scare into LeBron James and his merry gang of 3-point gunners. Casey has played the nobody-believes-in-us card this postseason, and without much validity. Now he can play it and mean it.

"I think we've done everything that we set out to do," said Casey, before catching himself. "We're not done yet."

"We ain't satisfied," Lowry added. "That's just our mentality. We've kept everything internal. Our goal is to play as long as possible."

So long as Lowry is playing like he did Sunday—and like he did in January—what is possible is something in excess of just eight more days.