Kyle Lowry is rewriting his playoff narrative

Kyle Lowry clapped his hands, pumped his fists and exhaled through a smile filled with bliss and relief. After years of playoff failures, he and the Toronto Raptors were seconds away from celebrating their first NBA Finals appearance in franchise history. At that moment, Kyle Lowry was pure joy and pure joy was best defined as Kyle Lowry.

The prevailing narrative of the postseason for these Raptors has been Kawhi Leonard’s two-way dominance — and rightfully so. He’s elevated his game to historic levels, reinserted himself into the discussion for the league’s best player and drug Toronto to wins it had scant business achieving. But this, with the camera intensely panned on him, was Lowry’s time. As much as this Finals berth can and will be about Leonard’s superstardom, it is equally, if not more, centered around Lowry conquering the summit that often felt so close but so far away. Here he was, enjoying the fruits of years of labor and suffering.

Summer after summer, waves of criticism crashed down upon his shoulders. When playoff burnouts remained fresh in the minds of doubters, the newfound heights he guided Toronto to — No. 1 seeds, an Eastern Conference Finals appearance, reinvigorating the city’s (and country’s) basketball culture — were irrelevant. Could the Raptors win on the grandest stage with Lowry as one of their best players? Was he worth a $100-million deal? Should they trade him and usher in a rebuild? Was this franchise simply destined to fail?

When questions turned to answers by way of Kawhi’s arrival, it left Lowry without his best friend, DeMar DeRozan, the talent who helped cultivate the team’s revival but ultimately placed a cap on its ceiling. The NBA is a business but the game’s humanity is often overshadowed by the financial security these multimillionaires enjoy. Lowry was stripped of his co-star; in his place stood uncertainty and added pressure. There were no guarantees Kawhi was healthy, let alone ready to reach his pre-injury production. Jakob Poeltl’s departure left Toronto questionably thin in the frontcourt. The Raptors would be better in 2018-19. Was that enough to mitigate Lowry’s once-public unrest after witnessing DeRozan’s exile?

Lowry has long been the engine of Toronto’s regular-season success and each stinging playoff defeat — beginning in 2014 to the Brooklyn Nets — tended to serve as a referendum on his career resume. It wasn’t always justified but that’s how it’s played out. Nothing changed when he scored zero points in a Game 1 loss to the Orlando Magic during the first round. Things remained static following consecutive losses to the Philadelphia 76ers in round two, when Lowry notched just 27 points on 9-of-27 shooting throughout the two games, regularly passing up open 3s and lacking desperately needed aggression. Groans of “Playoff Lowry” vibrated through the halls of the NBA landscape.

Yet to describe his subpar outings by simply belting “Playoff Lowry”  would no longer be accurate. This year, he’s averaging 14.7 points, 6.4 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals on 58.6 percent true shooting. During last season’s playoffs, he tallied 17.4 points, 8.5 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals on 65.9 percent true shooting. In the biggest series of his career, against the Milwaukee Bucks last round, he averaged 19.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists on 70.9 percent true shooting (.507/.465/.844 split). If “Playoff Lowry” is going to have staying power, its connotation can no longer be negative.

For years, Lowry’s diminutive frame hindered his scoring and playmaking in the postseason, where defenses are stingier and provided a longer leash by officials. Rarely did it stop him from performing on the fringes — drawing charges, flinging himself to the floor in pursuit of Mr. Spalding and tethering himself to opposing ball-handlers. Over this magical 2019 run, he’s managed to balance both sides of his basketball persona: the bulldog, lunchpail player with the pull-up shooter, off-ball dynamo, intuitive distributor and transition creator. He leads all players in loose balls recovered and charges drawn, and ranks second in deflections. At his core, this is Kyle Lowry — a distinct star whose impact is headlined by traditional skills, shooting and passing, but reinforced by glue guy attributes: screen-setting, a high IQ, shutting down post-ups against bigger players and sacrificing his body for the good of the team.

As a neutral observer, there is a certain admiration that develops while watching Lowry. The embellishment of contact on drives grows stale but beyond that, it is the simplicity with which he stars that is delightful. He plays hard, intelligently and decisively; those marginal skills unite for genuine impact. It’s why, season after season, analytics label him a darling. In a league highlighted by Stephen Curry’s all-time shooting prowess, Kevin Durant’s generational scoring package and the mythological build of Giannis Antetokounmpo, controllable traits like those are under-appreciated.

The scars of past playoff campaigns will not dissipate. Last year’s sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers persists. As does the first-round sweep against the Washington Wizards in 2015. Lowry and his Raptors — yes, his Raptors — exorcised some serious demons when they rattled off four consecutive wins in the Eastern Conference Finals and vaulted into a showdown with the Golden State Warriors.

A workman-like approach has long characterized Lowry, both in his game and the manner in which he handled the slings and arrows of criticism for nearly half a decade as the face of the franchise. It is fitting, then, that as he exited the stage following his Game 6 media availability, the Eastern Conference Championship trophy hung by his side, in his right hand, like a briefcase. Lowry still has business to address, another trophy left to claim, one more demon to exorcise for himself and the Raptors. To cast away that final demon, the ordinary man — this common man — must continue doing extraordinary things.