Fourth awakens Raptors in fifth straight win
Bench delivers late spark, three in four nights out west starting Sunday vs. Kings
MEMPHIS— Dwane Casey often talks about how good his Raptors bench can be, while also warning that there will be times when they play like the inexperienced NBAers that they are.
It’s usually game-to-game that the coach is talking about, not the same 48-minute outing, but then there are nights like Friday’s.
After a sluggish start that failed to bail out an equally sluggish starting five, a backup group sparked a fourth-quarter resurgence as the Raptors beat the Memphis Grizzlies 116-107 at the FedEx Forum.
Down 17 at one point in the third quarter, the Raptors took control, bridging the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth, to register their fifth straight victory.
Fred VanVleet, Jakob Poeltl and Norm Powell sparked the resurgence, giving Memphis a dose of the “grit and grind” style of play the Grizzlies have made their trademark over the last half-decade or so.
They did not dominate offensively — VanVleet had 12 points, Powell nine and Poeltl eight. They simply outhustled the Grizzlies and altered the feel of the game. It provided the rest of the Raptors with a spark they needed to pull away in the final 12 minutes.
DeMar DeRozan had 26 points for Toronto, and Serge Ibaka kept the Raptors in the game with 18 of his 21 points — tying his season best — in the first half. The Raptors managed to keep Memphis centre Marc Gasol mostly in check. He had 20 points, but did not dominate Toronto as he has at times. The tandem of Jonas Valanciunas and Poeltl were able to knock him a bit off his game.
After a relatively easy stretch where they were home for almost two weeks with only three games to worry about, the Raptors head to Sacramento for the first of three games in four nights out west.
“I think the schedule has been so good. We played three games in 13 days, so the mental (grind) isn’t so much,” Lowry said Friday morning. “(Getting) that mental break is more important sometimes . . . you don’t have to prepare for four games in five nights, travel, travel, travel. We were home for 13 days, we worried about three teams and three teams only in 13 days, so that’s pretty good.
“This one’s a little bit different. We have a few games and they’re closer together, but we’re mentally prepared for it.”
They might be mentally prepared for Sacramento, the Clippers and Phoenix starting Sunday, but the Raptors were still in vacation mode to start the trip in the first half on Friday. The Grizzlies, losers of nine of their last 10 going into the night, got off to a blistering start, shooting 74 per cent from the field and dropping a 34-point quarter on Toronto.
The Raptors got back into the game by playing some defence and trailed by only five at halftime. Toronto’s vaunted bench unit was outscored 36-13 by the Memphis backups in the opening half, a rare bad stretch for the group.
Casey’s pre-game concerns about the Raptors taking the 8-16 Grizzlies lightly were well founded. Toronto’s lack of intensity in the opening half was profound.