GRITTY ROAD VICTORY
Raptors show some toughness in taking down desperate Grizzlies in Memphis,
MEMPHIS— DeMar DeRozan moved from one seat in the locker room to another right in front of the giant television; Luis Scola, Bismack Biyombo and Jason Thompson sat in their row of stalls facing the screen like they were in prime theatre seats.
Kyle Lowry waited and waited and waited some more before he’d chat with the media because he was watching intently; assistant coach Rex Kalamian stood in a doorway paying rapt attention.
They were fixated on the final few minutes of Cleveland’s overtime win in Atlanta on Friday night because this is where the Toronto Raptors are these days. And it’s a weird, unusual place indeed.
When the Cavaliers won because the Hawks tried a hero-ball threepointer at the end of overtime instead of a two-pointer that would have tied the game, the Raptors’ anger was real.
“Why would he do that?” someone muttered.
“Take it to the rack,” someone else implored.
“Ah (drawn out expletive),” someone else shouted out as he headed to shower.
If you don’t think the chance to finish first in the Eastern Conference is the goal of this group, rest assured you are dead wrong, as the locker room scene showed.
The Raptors had just dispatched the Memphis Grizzlies 99-95 in something approximating an NBA street fight at times, a win that temporarily got them within two games of first-place Cleveland, a win that spoke to an emerging Toronto “culture” that is new to the franchise.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to do the last three or four years, develop a winning culture, winning habits,” coach Dwane Casey said.
The win — Toronto’s 22nd on the road this season and 17th against Western Conference opponents, tying two franchise records — was important mostly because of how it was accomplished. Even with a roster decimated by injuries, the Grizzlies are tough and physical, grinders who clutch and grab and hope to make teams quit. But Toronto did not back down, giving as good as they got in the second half.
“We’re developing a winning culture and we’ve been doing that for three or four years,” Lowry said. “Playing Memphis, you know every single night what you’re going to get with that cast that they have down there. We matched them.”
The usual offensive production from DeMar DeRozan (27 points) and Kyle Lowry (22 points) was to be expected, but Jonas Valanciunas had a career-high seven blocked shots and fought for every loose ball and rookie Norm Powell continued to play with poise, adding 14 points.
The Grizzlies blew two possessions while down two points in the final minute — a wild Zach Randolph miss was followed by a shot-clock buzzerbeating desperation heave by Vince Carter — and two Valanciunas free throws put Toronto up four with 25.3 seconds left.
But it was a bit of trickery that saved the day as Patrick Patterson, inbounding the ball with 11.8 seconds left, bounced it off the back of Memphis’s Tony Allen to himself before moving it to Valanciunas, who was fouled.
Valanciunas made two free throws with 10.1 seconds left to seal the game.
“That was one of those plays where I’d rather have the timeout but he had the foresight to make the play and luckily he got back in with two feet established on the floor,” Casey said.