Kyle Lowry leaves Raptors game with whiplash

Andrew Zuber
Updated ·2 min read

The injury woes plaguing the Toronto Raptors never cease.

Having already weathered 172 man-games lost with every key piece of the lineup missing time with an injury at one point or another, the Raptors lost arguably their most important player when Kyle Lowry left Friday’s game in the 3rd quarter.

Lowry collided head and neck first into the thigh of Serge Ibaka while flying through the key on a shot attempt, and stayed down on the floor in pain clutching his shoulder area. After trying to work it out with trainers on the sideline he eventually was moved to the locker room to get a further look at the injury.

The team announced that Lowry suffered whiplash on the play and would not return for the fourth quarter against the Indiana Pacers.

This is the second time the guard has gone down with an injury this season. He missed 11 games earlier this year with a thumb injury. He is not the only key rotation piece feeling the pain right now. Centre Marc Gasol continues to nurse a hamstring issue that has bothered him for a better part of the year and Norm Powell is currently out with a broken hand.

Through 40 games coming into Friday’s contest, Lowry is averaging 19.7 points and 7.3 assists in 36.6 minutes per game, while shooting 34.8% from three.

After the game, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse updated Lowry’s status.

X-rays being clear is a good sign, and sitting out the next game is a very reasonable precautionary measure regardless of the result. The Raptors play the second half of a back-to-back Saturday against the Brooklyn Nets.

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