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The numbers were impressive enough, with Lowry having rediscovered the shooting touch — especially from distance — that deserted him in the playoffs last year. He was the Raptors’ leader in player efficiency and minutes played and a reliable crutch in crunch time.

But it is the other stuff that makes Lowry so indispensable to this team. Coach Dwane Casey has to spend so much time answering questions about this or that little thing that Lowry did in the fourth quarter to turn a game in Toronto’s favour that he might as well begin his post-game comments every night with a Lowry-themed opening: “Kyle was great tonight. He’s our bulldog, that’s why he’s our leader. He always gets to the 50-50 balls, and he makes the right play at the right moment. I can’t say enough about Kyle. Any other questions?”

In a vacuum, there is a case to be made against signing a point guard on the wrong side of 30 to a massive contract. You could argue, as at least a couple of high-profile web sites did this week, that Ujiri might want to move on without Lowry. There are fair questions about whether Lowry and DeMar DeRozan could be the two best players on a championship team.

But there are far more questions about what the Raptors would be without Lowry. He’s the guy who does all the little things, who bails the team out late, who takes the big shot or makes the right pass — and loses his mind when the snake-bitten teammate finally makes a big shot of his own. He’s their leader, full stop. You might imagine rebuilding the Raptors around someone younger, taller and cheaper, but do you really think you will do better than Kyle Lowry? It would be some kind of a gamble.

Wednesday night at the ACC was a good reminder of the Raptors without their starting point guard. They came out flat, pulled ahead of Charlotte in the fourth quarter — and then fell apart down the stretch as the Hornets drilled a series of three pointers to win 110-106.

Before the game, Ujiri had offered an opinion on Lowry that ended up rather prophetic: “The way he goes is the way we go.”

It is likely to remain that way, in these parts, for some time.