MEMPHIS — The Raptors tried to pull a Freaky Friday and borrow the identity of the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night, but the Grizz didn’t return the favour and swap identities with them. The result was far from a thing of beauty. The two teams slugged it out, shot a whole lot of bricks and spent a ton of time at the free throw line in a foul-plagued affair.
- While the struggling offence is a major concern for the Raptors, they can take heart at least in the fact that their defence has finally done a 180 and is getting back to where it once was. They turned 13 Memphis turnovers into 24 points. Thriving off the mistakes of opponents was a hallmark earlier on. They also held the Grizzlies to just a single three-pointer, though the big, tough Grizzlies got to the line far too often.
- DeMar DeRozan is as frustrated as I’ve ever seen him. He is just 2-for-20 over his past two games. He knew it wouldn’t be easy to bounce back after missing so much time, but what is really bugging him is that his teammates, who had been so deadly offensively all season, have gone ice cold at exactly the same time.
- An example of what Lowry does to put the Raptors in position to win games, even when his shot isn’t falling: With the game tight, Lowry willed the Raptors back to a tie at one point by pulling down two offensive rebounds in a row (never mind that he stands a foot shorter than some players). Late in the third, he dropped in a spinning layup after the second of those boards to tie the game and give the Raptors some momentum. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t take advantage.
- Casey had talked beforehand about how difficult it is to try to match the Memphis front-court. “We’ve got to play our style, whether it’s up-tempo and make sure we get the ball to the weak side once we get down. This team is a very difficult team to go toe-to-toe with. You better have some bazookas on your side because they are two of the best interior players in the league as far as in the paint, controlling the restricted area so our bigs are going to have to do an extra special job,” Casey said. Jonas Valanciunas and Amir Johnson answered the bell, playing quite well, while Tyler Hansbrough and Patrick Patterson weren’t great, but at least were quite impactful on the boards. Patterson had six more offensive rebounds and is hauling in more offensive boards the past few games than ever before. Memphis leads the NBA in points in the paint, yet the Raptors were right with them for most of the game in that category, until the Grizz hammered them 18-6 inside in the decisive fourth.
- What a luxury it is for Memphis coach Dave Joerger to have Kosta Koufos behind all-world centre Gasol. Koufos was known more as a scorer while at Ohio State, but has morphed into an excellent defender, particularly at the rim. No wonder Cleveland was after him, before settling for Timofey Mozgov, who isn’t close to the defender Koufos is, but is a better overall player. When Gasol had to leave in the third quarter with four fouls, Koufos came in and was excellent, making three great plays at the rim to deter the Raptors. He had two blocks in the frame, a steal and six points.
- Terrence Ross couldn’t build on his best game in ages. While his defence was better than it had been, he couldn’t get untracked on offence and was held scoreless.
- What would Lowry do if he was named an all-star starter on Thursday night? “I don’t even know,” Lowry said. “Honestly, I wouldn’t even know what to say. I’d be shocked but we’ll see. I’m not really banking on it, I’m just going out there. I know the Canadian fans did a great job of voting for me and I appreciate them. Hopefully they did their job and something special happens from it.”
