It was a doubly painful night on Friday for Miami Heat point guard Kyle Lowry, limping out of Game 3 against the Atlanta Hawks with a hamstring injury, before seeing the Hawks win it late on.
Lowry pulled up in the third quarter of the 111-110 defeat for the Eastern Conference’s number one seeds at State Farm Arena.
The Hawks win brought the series margin back to 2-1, but it required some late-game heroics from Trae Young to get the job done.
Trailing by one point with 12 seconds to go, Atlanta did not call a timeout, which enabled Young to put his side up by one with less than five seconds on the clock.
Not hiding his feelings post-game, Lowry told ESPN: “I’m pissed the f*** off,” before referring to himself as the X-Men character “Wolverine,” famous for his ability to heal quickly.
The 36-year-old suffered the injury with around two minutes left in the third quarter and with Miami leading by 13 points, before Atlanta produced a fine comeback to steal it at the death.
“All I know right now is it’s a hamstring,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “But I do not know the severity of it and we’ll find out more tomorrow.”
Lowry made just two of seven field goal attempts on the night, and two of six from beyond the arc, as well as registering four rebounds and five assists before his game came to a premature end.
Heat team-mate Jimmy Butler added: “I know we love that guy as our point guard. If he’s with us, yippee-ki-yay. If he’s not, somebody has got to step in and do his job.
“It’s very, very hard to do. But we got enough in that locker room to try to bring to the table what Kyle does. He’ll get his treatment and we’ll see where he’s at.”
Game 4 takes place on Sunday in Atlanta.