Raptors lose fifth straight,
Memphis centre scores 42, slide reaches five games
MEMPHIS— Dwane Casey is convinced that whenever his Toronto Raptors shake this unseemly slump, when they are hale and healthy again and fully operational, they will be better because of these struggles.
The head coach is probably right — a little adversity never hurt anyone — but the journey to that point is no fun.
The Raptors dropped their fifth game in a row here Wednesday night, beaten by the Memphis Grizzlies’ frontcourt in a 101-99 loss, to continue the franchise’s worst slide since February, 2015.
“Like I told the team this morning, coming out of this will tell us who we are, it will help build our character going through this tough time now,” Casey said before Toronto fell to 2818. “How we come out of it, how we come out of it together will help us tremendously if there’s such a thing as going through a tough time helping you.”
That point is not here yet.
Marc Gasol established a new career high with 42 points and Zach Randolph added 16 as the Grizzlies’ big men dominated.
Playing without DeMar DeRozan — and Memphis was without starters Chandler Parsons and JaMychal Green — the Raptors faded in the second half.
They gave up 31 third-quarter points to turn a one-point halftime lead into a 10-point deficit. And they still almost stole a win.
A Kyle Lowry four-point play — his NBA-leading sixth of the season — got the Raptors within two points with just over two minutes remaining. Lowry tied it with 90 seconds left but Toronto missed a chance to take the lead when Patrick Patterson missed from three-point range for the sixth time in seven attempts on the night.
Marc Gasol gave Memphis a twopoint lead with about 28 seconds to go and Toronto’s last shot evaporated with a desperate Lowry three- point attempt missing at the buzzer.
Lowry had 29 points for the Raptors and Norm Powell, starting for DeRozan, had 21, but the Raptors were 10-for-34 from three-point range and got no offensive production to speak of from the frontcourt.
Anight after starting a frontcourt of Jonas Valanciunas and Jared Sullinger for the first time, Toronto switched to Valanciunas and Patrick Patterson on Wednesday.
Casey wasn’t labelling the bigger twosome of Tuesday a failure but there were issues.
“Well, it’s very difficult (to judge),” Casey said before the game. “(Sullinger) is not up to 100 per cent. So what we try to do is give him minutes, give him minutes and build up on that more so than looking at combinations.”
The move began horribly Wedensday as Gasol ate up Patterson in the first three minutes, scoring Memphis’s first13 points. That turned into a 19-point quarter, the most prolific scoring quarter by a Raptors opponent this season.