Big, bad Bears
Raptors drain 17 threes in drubbing of Grizzlies
Danny Green played magician Saturday night making the Raptors threepoint issues disappear at least for the time being.
A team that began the season putting up doubledigit three-pointers in a game on a nightly basis, but has since been struggling from behind the arc, had their numbers bolstered substantially by Green in Saturday’s 119-90 blowout of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Green went 7-for-9 from behind the arc in just under 10 minutes of the third quarter to blow open a tight game.
Green had a Raptors’ season high 21 points in the quarter and the eight threes in the game matched his career high.
He was one point shy of breaking Kyle Lowry’s mark for most points in a quarter all-time by a member of the Raptors. Lowry set that mark Dec. 2, 2015 with 22 in a quarter in a win over Atlanta.
The seven threes in the quarter by Green did set a franchise high.
For the game the Raptors were a very healthy 17-for-36 from behind the arc after a total of just 14 in the past two games combined. The 17 threes were one shy of the season high for a game.
The Raptors began the quarter nursing a 55-48 lead against a Grizzlies team that was playing its second game in consecutive nights and doing so without their franchise centre Marc Gasol who sat out the game with a back issue.
But in the third the Raptors starters came out and immediately picked up the pace. Green, who is rarely afforded the luxury of any room when he camps out beyond the three point arc, hit five in a row from the same spot in the same corner before the Grizzlies forced him to move.
For at least three of those he was left wide open, which is just unacceptable by a team when Green has been the only steady three point threat in the lineup for the past few weeks.
Sitting on five triples for the quarter, the Scotiabank Arena crowd got behind the former San Antonio Spur with chants of “Danny, Danny” and were rewarded with two more in the quarter before he sat down with just over two minutes to go in the frame.
Toronto outscored Memphis 45-14 in the frame and the starters didn’t see the floor at all for the fourth and final quarter.
MILES INCHING WAY BACK
A season gone mostly wrong for C.J. Miles is finally starting to swing the other way.
Putting too much stock in two contests among 48 contests into an 82-game schedule is probably foolish, but that for even two consecutive games now, Miles has looked like the productive player of a season ago is at the very least reason to get moderately excited.
It’s no secret the Raptors are a little shy in the shooter’s department, but if Miles can get back to form, he addresses that need internally and perhaps makes a mid-season trade for more help unnecessary.
He followed up a 13-point performance in the win over Phoenix with a 13-point game in the win over Memphis. Most important for the first time all year he is playing with the confidence and swagger that might make Masai Ujiri and Bobby Webster think twice about mortgaging more of their young talent for a midseason fix.
Miles clearly will have to continue on this recent trend for something like that to happen, but the two-game spurt is good for him and good for his teammates who want good things for a good teammate.
QUICK HITS
For the second game in a row the Raptors played the game without Kawhi
Leonard who was held out by the Raptors’ medical staff. This one was not listed as load management nor was it an injury so exactly why he was held out was left to the imagination ... Fred VanVleet left the game and went to the locker-room late in the third quarter looking very uncomfortable ... Without Gasol in the game the Grizzlies were forced to move JaMychal Green into the starting five which left their bench extremely thin ... Between them Kyle Lowry and VanVleet put
Mike Conley under wraps holding the Grizzlies allstar point guard to just 10 points and three assists, well below his normal production ... The Grizzlies turned the ball over a whopping 26 times leading to 38 Toronto points.