Nick Nurse: Kyle Lowry's Hand Injury 'Not Great...It Causes Him a Lot of Pain'

The Toronto Raptors have momentum on their side after two straight wins over the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals, but point guard Kyle Lowry is less than 100 percent heading into Thursday’s Game 5.

According to Malika Andrews of ESPN, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said: "Kyle’s hand is not great. ... It’s hurt, and it’s sore, and it causes him a lot of pain."

Raptors fans can at least take solace knowing Nurse said Kawhi Leonard felt "good" after playing with an apparent limp at times in this series.

The hand may be an issue for Lowry, but he has played well for much of this series.

Kyle Lowry Reel

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He is shooting 48.4 percent from three-point range against the Bucks and has consistently taken advantage of the openings created by the additional defensive attention Leonard and Pascal Siakam draw. He shined in Game 4 with 25 points, six assists and five rebounds and poured in 30 points in a Game 1 loss.

Lowry’s impressive play has been a welcome development for the Raptors seeing how his overall playoff resume needed some work entering this postseason.

He advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals just once prior to this year and shot a mere 39.7 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from deep in those 2016 playoffs. What’s more, his regular-season PER is 18.4 compared to just 15.7 in the playoffs, per Basketball Reference.

However, battling through an injury against the Eric Bledsoe, Malcolm Brogdon and George Hill point guard trio and helping lead the Raptors to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history would be an ideal way for Lowry to change his playoff narrative.