TORONTO — After two bad games in Cleveland, Toronto guard Kyle Lowry isn’t lacking confidence as the Eastern Conference finals shift to Toronto.

Still, if he doesn’t step up soon, the Raptors look likely to become the latest victim of a Cleveland sweep.

Lowry made just 8 of 28 shots, going 1 of 15 from long range, in Games 1 and 2 at Cleveland. Both were blowout wins for the Cavaliers.

Now Lowry is hoping a return home will help Toronto against LeBron James and the Cavs.

“I think we’ll be better at home,” Lowry said Friday. “We’re supposed to be better at home. We’re down 2-0 but we haven’t played on our home floor yet.”

Toronto is 6-2 at home in the playoffs after going 32-9 in the regular season.

“We’ve got to go out (Saturday)night and hold down our fort,” DeMar DeRozan of the Raptors said.

Whether at home or on the road, handling James and Cavaliers is hard enough. Without an effective Lowry, Toronto faces even longer odds of stealing a win in the series.

“It’s always important to have your top player but again, we’ve been here before,” Coach Dwane Casey said. “There’s nights he hasn’t played well.”

Lowry has had an up-and-down postseason. He scored 96 points over the final three games against Miami, but has seven games with 10 or more attempts where his shooting percentage was below .300. The only player to do that more often in a playoff season is Hedo Tukoglu with eight for Orlando in 2009.

Why so confident after two big defeats already?

“We have no reason not to be confident,” Lowry said. “We have to be. We got here for a reason. It wasn’t by luck. We had to beat two teams, we had to play a regular season. We got here for a reason.”

Toronto’s Game 2 loss marked the first time since March 23 and 25 that the Raptors lost back-to-back games. They haven’t lost three straight since November 15-18, a slump that matched their longest of the season.

Lowry attracted some unwanted attention in Game 2 for heading to the locker room late in the second quarter, right around the time Cleveland was turning a tie game into a 14-point halftime lead. Casey played down any suggestion Lowry had abandoned the bench.

“Kyle did not walk out on his team,” Casey said. “He and Cory Joseph use the bathroom more than any two human beings I know during the game.”

NOTES

MAGIC: Orlando made it official, announcing Frank Vogel as its new coach.

GARY PAYTON, a Hall of Famer, remains unimpressed by Golden State guard Stephen Curry becoming the first unanimous MVP in NBA history.

Payton told Sports Illustrated the vote just “happened to go” Curry’s way. He said players like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also could have been considered unanimous picks even though the vote didn’t go that way.