Dinos & Digits: Life Without Lowry

Welcome back to Dinos & Digits, a column where we dive into the box scores and find five interesting or strange Raptors statistics and put them on front street for discussion.

We like to explore a mix of both individual player and team statistics, ranging from raw box score numbers to some interesting and funky advanced metrics. The goal is to present the numbers without too much opinion attached, leaving those debates for the comment section.

OK, let's get down to it. Here are this week's interesting digits:

The Raptors have a net rating (points scored minus points allowed per 100 possessions) of 8.1 in the 2,111 minutes that Kyle Lowry has been on the floor this season, as compared to a -3.5 net rating in his 832 minutes on the bench.

That off-court net rating is the lowest mark on the team, while the 11.6 on/off differential is the second-highest behind Patrick Patterson’s 12.7 (12.4 on, -0.3 off).

Over the last three seasons, the Toronto Raptors have had a record of 129-74 (.635 win-loss percentage) in the 203 games that Kyle Lowry has played.

Meanwhile, they’re 12-10 (.545) in the 22 games he’s missed over that span.

Get well soon, Kyle.

DeMar DeRozan has now scored 30 or more points in 25 games this season.

That’s tied with Vince Carter’s 1999-00 season for the second most 30-point games in a single campaign in team history.

The franchise record is 30 such games, which Carter did in 2000-01.

The five-man unit of Cory Joseph, DeMar DeRozan, P.J. Tucker, DeMarre Carroll, and Serge Ibaka has a net rating of 57.3 in 17 minutes of action together since the trade deadline.

That’s based on a 165.7 offensive rating (points scored per 100 possessions) and 108.4 defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions).

It’s an incredibly small sample size, but an interesting trend, nonetheless.

Since the All-Star break, the Raptors are third in the Association in screen assists per game (12.5), third in deflections (18.8), fifth in charges drawn (0.75), and ninth in contested shots (63.5).

If you feel like the new-look Raptors are hustling extra hard, their hustle stats and placement on those leaderboards bear that out.

All stats courtesy of basketball-reference.com, NBA.com/stats, and statmuse.com.