Carroll implores struggling Lowry to 'man up'

Everyone is chiming in with solutions for how Kyle Lowry can break his inexplicable shooting slump.

Lowry is barely shooting 30 percent from the field through eight playoff games, and save for some controversial heroics at the end of regulation, Lowry was a disaster on offense in Game 1.

After practice Wednesday, Lowry's teammate DeMarre Carroll urged him to play up to his capabilities.

"Sometimes you just have to look yourself in the mirror, and you have to man up. You have to be like, 'I'm the Kyle Lowry that played 82 games, All-Star,'" Carroll told reporters.

As Carroll suggests, Lowry's struggles might be mental. He's showed up early and stayed far past midnight to get up extra shots, but he continues to flub easy looks.

Lowry finished with seven points on 13 field-goal attempts Tuesday. Eleven of those looks were uncontested and yet he connected on just two.

In the regular season, Lowry posted an effective field-goal percentage of 71.6 on shots without a defender within six feet. That dipped to 34.6 percent in the postseason against similar defensive coverage.

His struggles on offense might have also bled into his performance on defense. Goran Dragic scored a game-high 26 points against Lowry while shooting 10-of-20 from the field.

Carroll went on to note that if Lowry focused on clamping down on defense, the offense would come naturally.

"The Kyle Lowry I knew back in Memphis, in Houston, was the nitty-gritty, blue collar type of guy like I am," Carroll said. "He's still gonna be that same Kyle Lowry, and we never focus on offense. Blue collar guys never focus on offense. We focus on the defensive end, and then we allow the offense to open up, so I feel like if he could just get back to having fun and playing defense ... his offense will come easy."