Grizzlies maul shorthanded Raptors at home
On the eve of the trade deadline, with the future of some players on the team up in the air, and several key players out with injury such as Jakob Poeltl and RJ Barrett, Toronto got blown out by the Memphis Grizzlies. Initially, this game seemed like it was going to be a tightly contested contest, similar to the game against the Knicks the night prior, but after the second half began, it got out of hand for the Raptors rapidly.
To open the game, Toronto surprisingly jumped out to a nice lead on the back of some solid scoring from rookie Ja’Kobe Walter and Ochai Agbaji. Walter was inserted into the starting lineup and to open the game he moved off the ball well and Barnes found him on a backdoor cut. Walter then split two defenders near the rim and rose up for a floater at the end of the shot clock, along with a nice sprint out in transition. Agbaji hit two threes and got a dunk in the period as well. This scoring was needed because Scottie Barnes could not find the bottom of the rim to start, but he was doing other things well that contributed to Toronto getting their lead.
Barnes was continuing his brilliant stretch of elite defense and walling off the paint on a lot of Memphis’s drives , which included stifling Jaren Jackson Jr at the rim multiple times in the quarter. Ja Morant kept Memphis’s offense afloat with his acrobatic finishing, blazing his way to the rim and finishing around anyone who dared to step in his way. Toronto found themselves with a 7 point lead at the end of the first, a welcome sight against one of the western conferences elite teams.
The second quarter is where Jackson Jr. woke up. He scored 14 points in this period, while making three three-pointers as well, something he is capable of but not expected to do. Even with this explosion from the Grizzlies big man, Toronto held their own by way of committee and scored 30 points in the quarter, which was led by 7 points from Gradey Dick. The three point shooting in this period kept Toronto alive and they headed into halftime leading 59-53.
Coming out of halftime, it seemed as if Morant was on a one man mission to put this game away, and that is what he succeeded in doing. Morant scored 16 of Memphis’ 43 points in this quarter and he did it by once again getting deep into the paint. Probing his way after a screen for a floater, charging full speed down hill and then hitting Kelly Olynyk with a euro step for a finish. To add insult to injury, Morant also hit two threes, and once Memphis got the lead, they never looked back. Toronto’s offense without Jakob Poeltl usually suffers, no hard-hitting screens to free up ball handlers, no delay actions from Poeltl to get easy looks, no second chances collected by Poeltl on the offense glass, things are usually worse when Poeltl is out. With Barnes not having an efficient night, it became clear that offense would be hard to come by, and that it was. Toronto did score 25 points in the third quarter but that was 18 points less than the Grizzlies did, and this gap proved too large to overcome for the Raptors.
With a large lead headed into the final period, Memphis did not let up and scored another 42 points to Toronto’s 23 points in the period. With Barnes shooting 4/18 for 11 points, and without three starting players, you aren’t going to win many games. Toronto tried to make this a game but ultimately the talent gap couldn’t be surmounted and they were handed a blowout loss.
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