Rockets point guard Kyle Lowry shuts it down for season

Kyle Lowry will have offseason surgery and miss the end of the Houston Rockets’ season. Lowry did not play in Sunday’s loss in Miami, which eliminated Houston from playoff contention, and will also miss the Rockets’ final regular-season game, Thursday against the Hornets.

Lowry, with pre-break averages of 15.6 points per game, 7.6 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 2.0 steals, was being mentioned as an All-Star possibility in the first half of the season. But he was discovered to have a bacterial infection when he was hospitalized on March 8 for a sports hernia and groin infection in the middle of a Rockets East Coast road swing.

Lowry returned for an April 8 game against the Kings and played in nine straight games before deciding to shut it down. His post All-Star break averages fell to 11.4 points, 4.4 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 0.7 steals.

“With the injuries, I won’t be playing again this year,” Lowry said, per the Houston Chronicle. “With the groin and the sports hernia, it’s a lot to deal with. I made a decision to shut it down. ... I haven’t been healthy since I came back.”

He added, “If anybody has seen me play lately, it’s not who I am. It’s one of those tough processes, I tried to play with it and do what I can and not complain about it. It’s a situation I have to get it fixed and taken care of.”