The Canadian Press
NEW YORK–DeMar DeRozan made a turnaround jumper with 1.9 seconds to go to lead the Toronto Raptors to a 92-91 victory over the New York Knicks last night.
The Raptors won their fourth in a row–doing it with DeRozan and defence after learning earlier in the day that all-star Kyle Lowry will have right wrist surgery that could sideline him for the rest of the regular season.
Carmelo Anthony scored 24 points for the Knicks but finished a 9-for-26 night when he missed a long jumper as time expired.
Newcomers Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker were on the floor down the stretch as the Raptors clawed back from a 17-point, first-half deficit.
Ibaka finished with 15 points.
Toronto moved percentage points ahead of Washington for third place in the Eastern Conference.
The Raptors host the Wizards tomorrow night.
Meanwhile, Masai Ujiri defended the Toronto Raptors’ handling of Lowry’s wrist injury.
“I don’t think there’s any bad optics here,” the team president said. “If you look at the history of this kind of injury, players sometimes feel pain and sometimes they don’t feel pain.
“Sometimes you feel that this thing is going to go away, and that’s how he felt.
“[Sunday] Kyle felt OK, actually, the swelling had gone down, we were very optimistic,” Ujiri added.
“And then this morning it swelled up again.”
Lowry will undergo surgery today to remove loose bodies from his right wrist.
He’s expected to miss the rest of the regular season, with an aim to return in time for the playoffs.
Lowry injured the wrist against Charlotte on Feb. 15, but played in the NBA all-star game four days later in New Orleans plus participated in the three-point shooting contest.
He said he hadn’t thought the injury was serious.
He received treatment from the Pelicans’ staff in New Orleans, and had the wrist bandaged with ice when he wasn’t on the floor.
Raptors’ fans took to social media yesterday to voice their disappointment about the all-star weekend.
“If anybody wants to make a big deal of the all-star game or three-point contest, humbly I say I don’t think this can be questioned,” Ujiri said.
“By the way, I’ll say out of all of us, I think Kyle might be the smartest guy because it’s a contract year, I don’t think Kyle is going to do anything that is going to hurt him in any way,” he added.
“I 100 percent feel that the all-star game, I don’t think Kyle will look at that and say, ‘Hey, I’ll put myself in this position and jeopardized something by playing in the all-star game.'”
Yesterday’s news came as a surprise a day after coach Dwane Casey had said tests showed no significant damage to the wrist.
With 23 games left in the regular season, it’s also a big blow to a team looking to climb back up the Eastern Conference standings.
Lowry is second on the team with his average of 22.8 points and leads the Raptors with 6.9 assists per game.
The Raptors have averaged 113.2 points with Lowry on the floor this season, compared to 105.1 without him.
Defensively, they’ve allowed 105.1 points with Lowry in the game versus 108.6 without him.
Ujiri said there are no plans to sign another point guard.
“We have to give the point guards we have the experience to grow, to build with this team, and to be ready for what’s coming,” he reasoned.
“We believe in them and I think we’ll go from there.”
