HOUSTON

From about the start of the second half Saturday night when Kyle Lowry did not come out with his team until Dwane Casey in his post-game media scrum described Lowry’s ankle sprain as minor, we were wondering if we had just witnessed the tipping point of the Raptors’ season.

That would be the point where general manager Masai Ujiri has to decide play for now or play for later. Whether to let this team forge ahead and do what they can do or start unloading contracts with a look towards better times ahead.

The line is that fine and it rests rather precariously on the oft-injured status of Lowry.

Already this season Lowry has sprained a tendon in his finger. That turned out to be manageable. Saturday against the Utah Jazz he sprained his right ankle. Again this one was minor. Casey inferred that had the game been in any doubt Lowry could have played.

That’s two potentially time-missing injuries that turned out to be minor. Had either of them been a six-week type of deal, Ujiri’s hand would almost assuredly been forced.

This team is capable of surviving absences by a lot of its players but it won’t survive without Lowry.

Behind him are three young men, all in various stages of their development but none showing any sign of being ready to handle full-time point guard duties just yet

D.J. Augustin is the veteran of the three. He was the protection brought in should Lowry miss time, but as yet has provided little in the way of evidence that he would be able to hold the fort effectively in a longish term absence by Lowry.

Casey certainly hasn’t given up on Augustin. The five-year vet is just three years removed from a season in which he averaged 33 minutes a night, over 14 points, just over six assists and shot just under 42% from the field. That D.J. Augustin could get the Raptors through an injury. But that D.J. Augustin hasn’t been seen in Toronto as of yet.

Dwight Buycks got his first sustained run of the season Saturday against Utah and comported himself quite well but the Jazz is not in any way a representative of the level of competition in the NBA as they are currently constructed.

But give Buycks his due. He is taking the opportunities presented to him and doing his best. But he remains an inexperienced option that at this stage in his career needs time to develop and developing on the job — especially at the highest level of competition that his field presents — is a very tough road.

Julyan Stone isn’t quite as wet behind the ears as Buycks. He has got some time in the NBA but injuries to his hip and knees have held him back.

Defensively Stone gives Dwane Casey a piece he can use. His length and toughness allow Casey to match him up at various positions. But as eager and willing as Stone is on that end of the floor, he’s hesitant and unsure at the other. Offensively Stone is still very much in the neophyte stages of his career. To ask, or worse expect, him to run this team at this stage in his career, even for a short time is probably asking too much.

Which brings us back to the indispensable Lowry.

There’s no question he’s in better shape to handle the rigours of a full season than he was a year ago. He worked his body hard in the off-season and the hope is that summer work will carry him through the season uninjured.

But if it does not, and Lowry misses any significant period of the schedule, we believe that will be the signal that it’s time to start thinking towards next season.

And don’t misinterpret that as a justification for tanking. That concept is not part of Masai Ujiri’s makeup. The man has too much respect for the game and far too much respect for the players that have worked their whole lives to be part of that game to even contemplate such a perverse strategy as willingly losing.

Ujiri won’t be throwing games or giving games away. He will be acting accordingly and doing what he thinks gives his team the best opportunity to win. If that means dealing pieces that could help him now to bring in assets that will help him compete later when winning is more likely, that is what he will do.

And that’s not tanking. That’s playing the hand that is dealt.

ONE TOUGH WEEK

The week ahead is a bear, there’s no other way to put it.

The Raptors knew coming into the season they were going to have to survive a tough first month now find themselves in the toughest part of that tough start beginning Monday night here in Houston.

The week begins with the Rockets who have added Dwight Howard to James Harden and continues two nights later in Memphis where the Grizzlies possess the most intimidating frontcourt in basketball with Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph.

Finally back on the home court on Friday, the Raps welcome a fully-healed Derek Rose and the Chicago Bulls to Toronto.

That doesn’t end the killer portion of the Raps schedule but it certainly takes care of the worst of the first month has to offer.