Kyle Lowry downgrades himself to 'doubtful' for Game 4, and the Raptors are spent

Ben Rohrbach
·Senior NBA writer
Kyle Lowry is giving up hope, but he also isn't too hopeful he'll play in Game 4. (AP)
Kyle Lowry is giving up hope, but he also isn’t too hopeful he’ll play in Game 4. (AP)

After spraining his left ankle in the second half of a Game 2 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry was questionable for Game 3. However, he couldn’t suit up in another blowout loss in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and now he’s downgraded himself for Game 4.

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Lowry told reporters at Saturday’s practice, “I don’t think I’ll be able to play” on Sunday.

What’s worse, the All-Star point guard may have worsened the sprain before Game 3, when he took the floor to test the ankle in hopes of playing in front of his home crowd. Via ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst:

“It was close [Friday], but I think I made it worse by trying to work out a few times,” Lowry said. “I aggravated it a little bit more trying to go out there and trying to do things, turn and jump and run. So it’s more sore today.”

If a 3-0 series hole against LeBron James, who has made six straight trips to the NBA Finals, wasn’t the death knell for the Raptors, Lowry’s absence in Game 4 would almost certainly spell Toronto’s end. Even he sounded resigned to that fact following Friday’s 115-94 loss with Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski:

“They’ve got LeBron James,” Lowry told The Vertical late Friday night. “Nobody’s closing the gap on him. I mean, that’s it right there: They’ve got LeBron James and nobody’s closing the gap on him.”

Lowry’s backcourt mate DeMar DeRozan also knows the significance of his backcourt mate’s injury:

Lowry isn’t completely writing himself off for Game 4, telling reporters, “It’s not looking great, but I’m not giving up on it.” If he does give it a go, the Raptors need every bit of the 22.4 points, seven assists and 4.8 rebounds he averaged during the regular season, and that seems unlikely given the injury.

All of which means, no matter how badly the Raptors want to prevent the Cavaliers — who have openly discussed a sweep and repeatedly disrespected them — from finishing the job in Toronto on Sunday, there may not be anything they can do to stop a team led by they’ve already admitted is unstoppable.

DeMar DeRozan, making the safe bets

A post shared by Ball Don't Lie (@yahooballdontlie) on May 4, 2017 at 7:41am PDT

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!