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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - For Kyle Lowry, the resounding consensus within Toronto's locker room was that things couldn't possibly get worse than they seemed following a disappointing showing in Saturday's series debut.

"I have no doubt that Kyle Lowry will come back and play at the level that he’s played at and has made him successful," Dwane Casey had said after his starting point guard went 2-for-10 and fouled out of their Game 1 loss to Washington.

“I'm not going to be shocked if Kyle came and had an unbelievable game on Tuesday," Greivis Vasquez added.

"He'll be ready," Amir Johnson promised.

It seemed like a safe bet, didn't it? They, like the rest of this city, had watched Toronto's All-Star and most important player carry the team on his back all too often since he helped rescue them from mediocrity last season.

Since then he's had his moments of frustration, primarily last spring when the Raptors' unlikely playoff run came to an abrupt end with Lowry lying face down in despair, failing to get his shot past the defending Paul Pierce. He vowed never to let that happen again. The opportunity to redeem himself, at least this season, appears to be fading fast.

This moment is worse.

"I'd say I feel [expletive] right now," Lowry said after his team's 117-106 loss on Tuesday, falling behind 0-2 in their first-round series with the Wizards.

For the second straight game, Lowry was largely ineffective, struggling to stay on the floor long enough to make an impact once again. He picked up his second foul of the night just two and a half minutes into the second quarter. 10 seconds later he was whistled for his third. The Raptors were up by six when Lowry parked himself on the bench, they had led by as many as 10.

At least one of the calls was highly questionable. Lowry wasn't happy. Casey, who picked up a rare technical foul later in the game, opted to withhold comment on the officiating and save his money after the loss.

By intermission, Lowry had accumulated as many fouls as points (nine) through the first six quarters of this series.

"I guess [I was] trying to play physically," he said after finishing with six points on 3-of-10 shooting in 27 minutes. "But I guess I shouldn't play as physical as I want to."

"For me it sucks because I'm trying to help my teammates, trying to be more physical and play playoff basketball, but I keep getting fouls. It's really holding me back from being out there with my team."

It went from bad to worse midway through the fourth quarter when Lowry was forced from the game with a shin contusion - he'll be re-evaluated on Wednesday.

Of course, by that point the game was out of reach, the series and the Raptors’ season on life support.

With Lowry on the bench in the second quarter, Toronto imploded. Their perimeter defence, which has been suspect all year long, was immediately exposed by Washington's talented backcourt duo of John Wall and Bradley Beal, also coming off quiet Game 1 performances.

In a halftime interview, Beal explained, "They think that we're some punks. They think they can push us around, but we're not rolling."

Truth is, Washington has done most of the pushing. The Raptors have been out-rebounded by 30 in the series, 14 on the offensive glass. Wall and Beal, who shot 11-for-41 on Saturday, got wherever they wanted in Game 2. Wall finished with 26 points and 17 assists while Beal scored a game-high 28 on 12-of-21 shooting. After hitting his first four jumpers, DeMar DeRozan was stymied by the stronger Pierce and the length of sophomore Otto Porter.

"I know we can do better," Casey said. "I thought we did a little bit better on the boards tonight but I see us getting knocked down going to the basket, I don’t see their guys hitting the floor. I see them waltzing in, waving at us and laughing at us going to the basket and I don’t see us knocking [anyone down].
That’s what I challenged the team after the game. We’ve got to make sure we hit somebody and make it count."

"Passion," said Vasquez. "We have to play with passion, we have to play like we love the game. That’s about it. We’ve done it before. It’s playoff time so you better play with everything you’ve got. I don't think we did it."

They’re running out of time. These Wizards are just the fifth team to go up 2-0 on the road since the first round went to a best-of-seven format in 2003. They accomplished the exact same feat last year, also as the fifth seed, taking the first two games in Chicago and eventually knocking off the fourth-place Bulls in five. The series shifts to Washington now, where the Wizards were 29-12 this season - the third-best home record in the Eastern Conference.

Although the series is still young and this Raptors team has shown unexpected resilience in the past, the odds will be stacked against them. Only three teams have ever lost the first two games of a series at home and gone on to advance. Overall, teams that take a commanding 2-0 lead - home or away - have won the series 93 per cent of the time (55-4).

With Toronto down by 13 late in the third quarter, Lowry missed a pair of free throws and heard a smattering of boos from the sold out crowd. The deficit would balloon to as many as 23. At the nine-minute mark in the fourth quarter, fans began to race for the exits.

"I feel for our fans," Casey said. "We have the greatest fans, passionate fans who have been with us all year. And that's where the pride factor has to come in. The guys have to go out and play with pride for themselves first, for the team and for our fans. I thought our guys were trying, it’s not like we went and laid down but there’s another level in playoff basketball that you have to reach with physical play, intelligent play, and all those things have to come together, especially at playoff time."

"It's far from over," DeRozan insisted. "We still have to go in their place. Confidence is still high. All we've got to do is take it game-by-game. Anything can happen. We're not down on ourselves. We understand what we have to do."