TORONTO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Toronto Raptors guard Kyle Lowry rebounded from his lowest scoring playoff game in eight years with a 22 point effort to lead the team to a 106-100 victory over Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday evening to even up their seven-game series at one game apiece.
After managing four points on 18.2 percent shooting (2-for-11) from the field with one free throw attempt in game one, Lowry shot the ball at a 50.0 percent clip (6-for-12) and went to the charity stripe nine times. The three-time All-Star also dished out five assists and grabbed four rebounds while playing a team high 40 minutes.
"Just playing, going out there and taking my shots and being aggressive," said Lowry after the game on the keys to his success on Tuesday. "My teammates challenged me...I got aggressive early and in the second half, DeMar (DeRozan) got himself going. We balanced well tonight," he added.
Despite scoring 17 of his 22 points in the first half, Lowry contributed in a big way in the final ten seconds of the game when he sank a key 20-foot jumper with eight seconds remaining in fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.
Raptors head coach Dwane Casey predicted a bounce back performance from his point guard before the game, knowing that he is too competitive to play poorly in consecutive games.
"He's a competitor, he's a fighter. I just knew that he wasn't going to be satisfied the way that he played the first game. He's human. Everybody has a night like that," said Casey after the game. "You just can't panic every time a guy has a tough night," he continued.
Entering the game, Lowry averaged 18.2 points on 38.5 shooting from the field in 32 games as a starter over the past four postseasons with Raptors.
Casey also admitted to media after the game that he and team modified their playbook to give Lowry a greater chance of success in game two.
"We tried to do some things to help him get open more often. We had to do some things with spacing, screening to try to get him open...I thought it was effective," said Casey.
The revised plays opened up the lanes for Lowry and his teammates, resulting in 24 assists and a postseason franchise-record of 14 three pointers made on 29 attempts. In total, five players finished in double digits, with DeRozan (23), Ibaka (16), Joseph (11), and Valanciunas (10) rounding out the list.
The series now shifts to BMO Bradley Center in Milwaukee for game three on Thursday night and game four on Saturday afternoon before returning to Toronto for game five on Monday.
