The Week That Was: Never Underestimate the Heart of a Three-Time Defending Atlantic Division Champion

After winning their second consecutive NBA title in the ‘90s, Rockets head coach Rudy Tomjanovich coined the famous line “never underestimate the heart of a champion” which has stuck with me since and got me thinking about — in a much lesser version, of course — the Raptors without Kyle Lowry for the foreseeable future, especially during their inspired win over the Wizards in Washington on Friday.

Friday’s win was huge, especially coming off Wednesday’s dud at home in the first half of the back-to-back against Washington. It gave the Raptors the season series over the Wizards, which could come in handy if the two teams are still jostling for the three seed and the right to avoid LeBron James and the Cavs in round two at the end of the season.

The Raptors started the week with a win against Portland at home on Sunday and then put together another comeback win the night after in New York. Before the Knicks game though, the team found out they would be without Lowry for an extended period. On the bright side, Lowry had surgery on his wrist without any complications on Tuesday.

There’s plenty to parse with the Lowry injury. We looked at how the rest of the season might look like without our point guard, lineup combinations that have worked and that might work going forward, a closer look at Lowry’s impact and what all the post All-Star break trends mean, and how a Lowry-less offence might work.

Elsewhere, we talked to Patrick Patterson about the Oscars and movies in general, recorded a podcast about the eventful week that was, provided an update on what was going on with the 905s, and of course, brought you another installment of Bringing Up Bebe.

The week ended with a disappointing loss at Milwaukee on Saturday, but there’s still plenty of winnable games on this road trip. Never underestimate the heart of a...you know the rest.