

It will be up to DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry to carry the Raptors. (Tom Szczerbowski/USA TODAY Sports)

Kyle Lowry needed a friend more than a teammate out for his own self interest when he entered free agency last summer. DeMar DeRozan didn’t need to hear that, he just knew, and that was enough for both to achieve what they wanted.

DeRozan was one of the few people who could still get through to Lowry, who mostly shut down his cellphone while the Houston Rockets, Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors made pitches for the pit bull of a point guard. But DeRozan was mostly there to listen, list the pros and cons and let Lowry make up his own mind, even if he remained confident that their backcourt bond was going to remain intact.

“I’m his friend first and that’s how I approached it,” DeRozan said. “I never once pressured him or suggested nothing. I was just being honest with him. It wasn’t about me being selfish, saying, ‘Just come back to us.’ I didn’t want to be there as a teammate.”

Lowry remembers calling for advice once when DeRozan was on the plane – and DeRozan still picked up. “It makes life a lot easier when you know you’ve got somebody who just literally, truly is out there just for you, just wants you to be happy,” Lowry said. “I still probably owe him about $60 for that call.”

DeRozan has already received his payment. He wasn’t left with the responsibility of carry Toronto alone when Lowry re-signed with the Raptors on a four-year, $48 million deal that provided him with the security and support he had long sought through his first seven seasons. And, when DeRozan missed 21 games with a groin injury, Lowry strapped the Raptors on his shoulders and performed well enough to keep his team in contention in the Eastern Conference and get voted in as an all-star starter.

“For me, it was, my guys, my organization counts on me. I know DeMar, he was [upset] and if we was losing, he would’ve been more hurt, so I didn’t want to feel like he let us down,” Lowry said. “That was extra motivation. It was hard, but for the preparation I put in the summer time, it was one of things, let me take advantage of it. Don’t let the moments slide. We wanted to keep our ground.”

With Lowry and DeRozan to start the season, the Raptors were the surprise team in the East, winning 13 of their first 15 games and perhaps raising irrational expectations for a franchise that has never won more than 48 games and is still seeking its first playoff series win since Vince Carter was hurdling unwitting defenders in 2001.

Lowry and DeRozan carried the Raptors to the third seed in the East last season, taking a Raptors team that many thought would tank for Andrew Wiggins after trading away Rudy Gay to a seven-game series against Brooklyn. With no significant offseason moves other than Lou Williams and James Johnson, Raptors Coach Dwane Casey viewed this season to be about taking the next step, not necessarily making a run for the title.

“You’d like to wave a magic wand and say, you’re going to improve this, improve that, but it’s going to happen when it happens,” Casey said. “It’s a lot of areas we have to get better in. We got ahead of the curve by winning some games, but these guys have worked their butts off and really achieved a lot but we’re still not a finished product. Experience is something you can’t rush. We’ve got to stay together, stay hungry, stay focused on what we’ve got to do.”

Lowry was huge for Toronto during the early part of the schedule. (Matt Slocum/AP Photo)

The Atlanta Hawks have replaced the Raptors as the league’s darlings since DeRozan went down and appear to have a sustainable formula – and a rather decent cushion – to hold on to the No. 1 seed entering the postseason. The Raptors (35-17) have gone 9-5 since DeRozan returned but their grasp on second place is a bit shaky; Cleveland is starting to resemble a contender as LeBron James has started to post MVP-caliber numbers once again and Washington and Chicago are also hanging around, one good winning streak from catching them.

DeRozan, the Raptors’ longest-tenured player and the last remaining link to the Chris Bosh era, has seen the franchise move from lottery to playoff contender and knew it wouldn’t be able to maintain that early pace that was buoyed by a home-heavy schedule against few quality teams.

“We understand it’s a long season. Nobody is going to stay hot, go 82-0. We was going to have bumps in the road and we had to be ready for it,” DeRozan said. “Better now than later on in the season, to where, going into the playoffs, we don’t want to have no problems, or question marks about what type of team we want to be. It’s good to happen early on.”

Toronto had obvious flaws that became exploited in DeRozan’s absence but haven’t been erased by his return. Casey is still trying to find a consistent rotation or a lineup he can trust. Terrence Ross was recently benched in favor of Greivis Vasquez, and Jonas Valanciunas has been such a liability that Casey usually keeps his promising but still-developing big man on the bench in the fourth quarter.

The Raptors were one of two teams to rank in the top 10 in offensive and defensive efficiency last season but Casey’s plans of picking up the pace have led to them making slight improvements on offense and plummeting on defense. They rank fourth in the league in offensive rating (109 points per 100 possessions) but are 19th in defensive rating (104.4).

Lowry has a reputation for being a tenacious defender but hasn’t been able to expend as much energy on that end with more scoring responsibility. And now, when it should be his turn to relieve Lowry from that exhausting 21-game stretch without his all-star backcourt mate, DeRozan has been in a season-long shooting slump.

After averaging a career-high 22.7 points last season, DeRozan is contributing 18.2 on a career-low 39.6 percent shooting. Part of that can be attributed to rust from a six-week absence, but the Raptors’ early success also masked some of his early struggles.

In the past, DeRozan has thrived on making those difficult, low-percentage fadeaways, leaners and turnaround mid-range jumpers. The Raptors will eventually need DeRozan to regain his rhythm, or for pendulum to start swinging in his favor. But he remains confident that it will happen.

“We all in this collectively. We push each other to be great every night and I think that’s the uniqueness of our team, how we uplift every person on the team, because any given night, it can be anybody,” DeRozan said. “We don’t make no excuses. No matter what, honestly.”

Toronto is secured a top-four finish because the Atlantic Division remains a disaster, but homecourt advantage in the first-round isn’t guaranteed. Until former lottery picks Valanciunas and Ross make significant strides, the Raptors’ fate depends on where DeRozan and Lowry can take them. An underrated pair that connected almost immediately after Lowry arrived from Houston in 2012, DeRozan and Lowry have complementary games – DeRozan brings the smooth, Lowry; the rough edges – and are similarly laid back off the court.

Lowry isn’t much of a talker and said the team has adopted a “do” that was on display with DeRozan sidelined. Though he still grapples with his newfound status as a star – which arrived with the help of Canadian pop star Justin Bieber urging his fans to vote – Lowry maintains the underdog role, at least in his mind, because there remains so much more to accomplish.

“I still got more work to put in, I still got more work to do,” Lowry said. “I’ve been to the playoffs and the first round. I want to get to the Finals. I want to win a championship. That’s my motivation. That’s my goal for my career.”

And he feels even better to have a trusted friend and teammate at his side. “You’ve got to put yourself in the position of, ‘Okay, how are you going to be successful?’ It’s not peaches and cream like everybody thinks, because it’s a life-altering situation,” Lowry said. “You can go think the grass is greener on the other side, but it’s not.”

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