How Kyle Lowry’s Injury Shapes the Rest of the Eastern Conference

Amidst the deadline hangover and the ‘slight high’ contending teams get by hunting for recently bought out players comes a story that will reshape how the Eastern Conference unfolds this season.

Raptors All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry is likely out for the rest of the regular season.

To the naked eye, this is just a minor injury that will only affect Toronto. In the long run, however, every team in the playoff picture could see their fates shifted.

First, we can take a look at the main focus — Toronto. Widely considered the team most likely to make a run for the consolation prize in the East as the best team not featuring LeBron, they’ve been a slight disappointment. Sitting at 36–24 is good for 3rd in the East, but this team had plenty of room for a run left in them. Role players were beginning to get healthy, and Serge Ibaka just got a pre-rebuild ticket out of Orlando like one of the rich people on the Titanic. Then, the news about Lowry surfaced, putting a halt on this team’s second half run.

So far this season, we haven’t seen the “sky is falling” style of play you’d expect out of this team when Lowry isn’t on the court.

Still, that small sample size isn’t indicative to how this will play out. For example, their most recent win without Lowry was a buzzer-beater win against the Knicks — which is like beating a bunch of third graders in kickball and then bragging about it. Narrowly beating the Knicks in the current state they’re in is the closest thing you can get to a loss without actually getting one.

Point guards are more important in today’s NBA than ever before. It’s not an exact comparison to quarterback play in the NFL, but it’s along the lines. No, this team isn’t going to be a dumpster fire like the Browns, but gearing up for a playoff run without your court general is far from ideal.

Time to break out those Cory Joseph Toronto jerseys fans had waiting in the wings. He was one of the best pickups in the offseason, and has put up a decent 13.3 PER this season. All eyes will now shift towards DeMar DeRozan — as they should. Joseph and Delon Wright have to make an effort defensively if they’re going to bring Toronto within swinging distance of the No. 2 slot in the East.

Still, you have to assume the Raptors are going to fall off. You can’t replace Lowry’s 23 points and 7 assists per game with Joseph. Since Lowry’s been out the last three games, Joseph has averaged 10.3 ppg and 5.3 assists. You can’t replace a Camaro with a PT cruiser.

That is where the rest of the league begins to form. If Jurassic Park was locked and loaded, the Celtics might be in trouble. Their last four games put them against four now-projected playoff teams, with the Celtics winning just one out of those four. They’re not going to be able to beat up on bad teams all season. A little Irish luck struck as March approached Boston, as they look like the likely team to finish second in the East.

The race for third is now in the hands of the human highlight reel named John Wall. The Wizards are the easy team to pick to snag the three slot, especially since Wall gets to face Joseph in two straight games. If I’m Joseph, I’m faking an injury and sending the poor innocent Delon Wright out there like the pigs during feeding time in Jurassic World.

The Wizards have been the second-best team since December behind only the NBA Fantasy Draft-created Warriors team. Wall has been as consistent as they come, making them the easy bet to slide into third.

The more important question is, how far will Toronto slide? The Hawks are like global warming. One minute you’ll be getting ice cold snow, the next it’s 60 degrees in February. You never know.

The most interesting team to watch is the Miami Heat. While everyone was focusing on the abysmal dunk contest during All-Star weekend, people didn’t realize the Heat were the hottest team in basketball.

Who needs Wade or Bosh when you have Dion Waiters and Hassan Whiteside? Everybody could’ve guessed this.

The NBA regular season is like the points in ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway,’ so this all leads to who these teams are going to face in the first round. As long as Toronto finds themselves in the top half of the playoff seeding, they should still be in a great position. Let’s say the Hawks or the Bulls finish 5th. Imagine having to play a Raptors team that just gets Lowry in time for the playoffs. If he comes back healthy, that’s just flat out not fair.

Toronto needs to stay afloat. Only then can they worry about who has the death sentence of facing them in the first round.