Free throws falling and Grizz winning

They say the best way to assess the mental health of a basketball team is to check its efficiency from the free throw line.

Twenty years ago today, before more than 21,000 fans at SkyDome, the Vancouver Grizzlies continued one of their more remarkable weeks in franchise history by beating the Toronto Raptors 104-100 in overtime for their sixth win in 12 games.

When you saw Vancouver, playing the second-half of a back-to-back on the road, shooting 34-of-36 from the free throw line, you knew this was a focused group maximizing its abilities. At one point, the Grizz knocked down 22 straight free throws.

“That is what NBA basketball is all about,” Vancouver head coach Brian Winters said. It was hard to argue the point. The Grizzlies looked like a team on the right path. Early-season growing pains with Bryant “Big Country” Reeves were replaced by performances like the game-high 25-point effort he had against Toronto.

And starting point guard Greg Anthony, a scrap-heap guy from the Knicks, was playing like an upperechelon guy, with 22 points and nine assists against the Raps.

If only they could have bottled the feeling, the chemistry, the camaraderie the group felt that day and served it as an elixir on the tough days that lay ahead. Record: 10-31 Next game: Jan. 27 at Washington Howard Tsum ura’s six seasons as an NBA beat reporter began in 1995-96 as he hit the road with the expansion Vancouver Grizzlies. He chronicles each game of that season in our It Was 20 Years Ago Today series.