Kyle Lowry opened up about Raptors being away from Toronto for rest of the season

The Toronto Raptors won't be coming back to Toronto for the remainder of the season and Kyle Lowry — who is rumoured to be currently selling his Toronto home — has some feelings about it. 

"We would love to be home, we would love to be in front of our fans and it just sucks that we can't be, but the connection is still there," Lowry told reporters after the Boston Celtics game on Thursday.

The team announced Thursday that due to border restrictions and the heightened public safety measures in Canada, the Raptors will stay in Tampa, Florida for the remainder of the 2020-21 season.

"With the virus, the Canadian government is doing everything to protect the country and protect the citizens," Lowry said.

"Yeah, [the NBA has] very strict protocols, but the protocols can only protect you to a certain extent. We completely understand why the country of Canada and the government is really tight right now."

The Raptors have been in Florida since pre-season and while disappointing for fans, Raptors coach Nick Nurse said that it might be for the benefit of the players to stick to one location.

"I think that it took us a while to get settled in, I think to pick up shop and go back and try to re-settle in, kinda like you would at the start of the fall, you usually get guys in early so they can get settled in before training camp started," Nurse said from Boston, ahead of the Raptors' game versus the Celtics.

"We're just kind of getting settled in, we might as well finish it out now. Hope we can get back [to Toronto] and start next season from Day 1."

However, it's unclear if Nurse is right about it being better for players since the Raptors haven't been their best lately.

Lowry, despite being in Florida for the rest of the season, told reporters he still has Toronto at the forefront of his mind, though.

"[Toronto's] our home, that's where we play, that's our home city, the country we play for, at the end of the day, 'Toronto Raptors' is on the front of our jersey, we play for that," he said.

"We still know that the fans are supporting us the utmost that they can, we wish we were playing in front of those guys. It's unfortunate that the world is in this situation but as professionals, we have to do our job."

The Raptors next game is on Sunday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.