Kyle Lowry's Elbow Injury - to rest, or not to rest...

[LJ2]

They've been talking about decreasing Lowry's minutes for literally the entire season and it's only gone up.

Why would it go down now? Just because he's hurt? Given the time of the official injury, his minutes per game actually increased to the MOST IN THE LEAGUE. That's not hyperbole. That's what actually happened.

Yeah, but they were trying to secure the second seed. Atlanta was on a hot streak and could threaten to have taken over our spot with a win against us last night. They put Kyle in and he ends their hot streak. Now our spot is pretty much secured so there really isn't a reason left to play him. I expect they rest him a few games.

[JWash]

Let's go back to that sloan sports article and the predictors of injury:

http://www.sloansportsconference.com...BA-players.pdf

1) Speed. Lowest on team, so that's good.
2) Games played. That was his 72nd game of the season, not good.
3) Distance covered. More than anyone else in the game, not good.
4) Number of minutes played. More than anyone else in the game, not good.
5) Number of field goals attempted. More than anyone else in the game, not good.

Totally, wasn't a hard game for him, right?

Disagree, not all about statistics. Was a fairly laid back, low-impact game by Lowry's standards.

[Barolt]

Disagree, not all about statistics. Was a fairly laid back, low-impact game by Lowry's standards.

Oh, cool. A sliding window study of all injuries league-wide over the course of two seasons using SportsVu data determined that those are the most important indicators in predicting injury. But JWash says they don't matter, so Lowry's good!

[JWash]

I don't think Lowry is in there playing because we're trying to win games, I think there's actually a medical reason for it.

[Barolt]

I don't think Lowry is in there playing because we're trying to win games, I think there's actually a medical reason for it.

Casey literally said, yesterday, "We need to win games."

[JWash]

Casey literally said, yesterday, "We need to win games."

That's what Casey said, I didn't realize Casey was judge, jury and executioner for this team. If management and the training staff tell him Kyle ain't playing, Kyle ain't playing. This is a dude with a couple months left on his contract, not Popovich.

[JWash]

Oh, cool. A sliding window study of all injuries league-wide over the course of two seasons using SportsVu data determined that those are the most important indicators in predicting injury. But JWash says they don't matter, so Lowry's good!

I didn't say they don't matter. I'm talking about in the context of last night. Are you seriously trying to suggest that Lowry played the same kind of high impact game that he normally does? Throwing his body into defenders to score? Posting up? Banging with the trees for rebounds?

[CalgaryRapsFan]

I didn't say they don't matter. I'm talking about in the context of last night. Are you seriously trying to suggest that Lowry played the same kind of high impact game that he normally does? Throwing his body into defenders to score? Posting up? Banging with the trees for rebounds?

Yes.

40 minutes played - 2.7 minutes more than his season average, which already put him top-10 league-wide for MPG

19 shots attempted (21% shooting) - 3.4 more shots than his season average, with a benching-worthy shooting %

He wasn't playing very well (granted the assists were nice) and the game was a blowout for the most part, coming off an elbow draining, in an utterly meaningless game, after the coach talked about not risking player health and giving Lowry rest.

Yup, makes total sense. Keep pounding the rock.

[JWash]

Yes.

40 minutes played - 2.7 minutes more than his season average, which already put him top-10 league-wide for MPG

19 shots attempted (21% shooting) - 3.4 more shots than his season average, with a benching-worthy shooting %

He wasn't playing very well (granted the assists were nice) and the game was a blowout for the most part, coming off an elbow draining, in an utterly meaningless game, after the coach talked about looking out for player health and giving Lowry rest.

That's just minutes and shots. Play style matters too. That's why we sometimes say some players are coasting and others are pitbulls for example. A guy playing Kyle Korver's game isn't putting the same stress on his body as a Westbrook. Even if they're playing the same minutes and shooting just as much.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

That's just minutes and shots. Play style matters too. That's why we sometimes say some players are coasting and others are pitbulls for example. A guy playing Kyle Korver's game isn't putting the same stress on his body as a Westbrook. Even if they're playing the same minutes and shooting just as much.

He didn't play the game any differently than he normally does, he played more minutes and took more shots (using an elbow that is causing him pain).

[Axel]

Margin for error is slim, and here we are with 8 games left and the second seed pretty much sewn up. Frankly, it was pretty much sewn up 5 games ago. Not exactly a slim margin for error.

Well to be fair, the margin for error was slim in Dec (when the quote was made). Unfortunately for us, Casey is a robot who needs a software update to adjust to the new reality that we have games that don't matter right now (the software patch should also include Scola's struggles).

[Barolt]

What Lowry said after the game:

“It didn’t protect me, so f— it.” - About taking the sleeve off.

Not... The elbow is fine, so fuck it.

Not... It didn't make it better, so fuck it.

It didn't protect me.

[CalgaryRapsFan]

What Lowry said after the game:

“It didn’t protect me, so f— it.” - About taking the sleeve off.

Not... The elbow is fine, so fuck it.

Not... It didn't make it better, so fuck it.

It didn't protect me.

At one point during the game last night, as the camera was focused on the Raptors bench ahead of going to a commercial, Lowry was seen walking down the sideline holding his injured elbow with his face clearly showing a lot of pain. This injury continues to bother him (4-19 anybody?), to the detriment of his game and the team. Regardless of whether rest will outright heal the injury or not, there's absolutely no point playing through the pain in meaningless games.

[iblastoff]

Of his 11 playoff starts, 4 of them were last year (hurt and terrible) and the other 7 were that Nets series. Not exactly a big body of work to base off of.

Oh I know. It was a pretty worthless statement. I'm just adding fuel to the fire.

[psrs1]

Margin for error is slim, and here we are with 8 games left and the second seed pretty much sewn up. Frankly, it was pretty much sewn up 5 games ago. Not exactly a slim margin for error.

I expect him to rest at least 2 probably 3 of remaining games. Rest him on back to backs limit minutes in other games.