Late in the second quarter, the man-mountain who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies known as Steven Adams pushed his massive frame into a a crowd of undersized Raptors, reached up high and got both his meaty mitts on the basketball for yet another offensive rebound.
He didn’t bother to try and go up off-balance and in a crowd – and besides, the Grizzlies have options. Instead Adams flipped the ball out to Ja Morant, the athletic marvel who plays point guard for Memphis and the human highlight reel for the NBA’s digital properties.
After first pump-faking OG Anunoby to centre court, Morant accelerated to the rim on the catch as Adams leaned his 270-pound frame into Raptors rookie centre Christian Koloko – a toothpick in comparison – and cleared him out. The Kiwi made sure Morant could unload one of his strobe light dunks without having to contend with a shot blocker.
It was just one play but it encapsulated what the Grizzlies were working with in what ended up a 119-106 loss for the struggling Raptors: They were bigger, stronger and more athletic at almost every turn. While that’s not the only reason Toronto came up short for the 11th time in 15 games and for the fifth straight game at home, it was a big part of it.
Toronto didn’t roll over, though Memphis tried to break them early and almost did. After surrendering a 23-point lead to the visitors with 5:11 to play in the third quarter, Toronto was able to cut Memphis’ lead to nine with 5:53 in the fourth on a tip-in by Siakam, helped along by a frenetic stretch by Barnes who scored eight points in a four-minutes stretch prior to that.
But the Grizzlies didn’t panic. Morant calmly found Dillon Brooks for an open three and then Brooks rifled a pass to Adams who had his man sealed under the basket and the lead was quickly back to 14.
Toronto fell to 15-20 with the loss and are outside the Eastern Conference play-off picture. The Raptors were led by Pascal Siakam who finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, while Gary Trent Jr. had 20 points off the bench and Scottie Barnes had 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists for the Raptors who were playing without Fred VanVleet (back) and Precious Achiuwa (ankle). The Raptors shot 40.6 from the floor and 10-of-28 from deep.
They were no match for Memphis. Mississauga’s Brooks had 25 points in a successful homecoming while Ja Morant had 19 points and a career-best 17 assists and Adams had 14 points and 17 rebounds as the Grizzlies shot 50.5 per cent from the floor and 13-of-29 from three.
The Grizzlies and the Raptors share some common traits: Each team believes that an important way to control a basketball game is to take more shots that their opponent. Like the Raptors, the Grizzlies are among the NBA leaders in offensive rebounding (second) and in steals (10th).
But unlike the Raptors, the Grizzlies’ size – Adams and front-court mate Jaren Jackson Jr. are likely close to 550 pounds combined (the Raptors started Koloko and Juancho Hernangomez as their front court, giving away perhaps 100 pounds in the match-up) and are each nimbler that men their size should be – means they can beat you more traditionally too. The Grizzlies are the toughest team to score on from inside five feet in the league. The size allows Memphis’ slew of big, rangy wings like Brooks to get into the ball defensively confident there is help coming.
And when all else fails they have Morant to make plays that only a handful of people who have ever picked up a basketball can even think about trying.
It’s perhaps the biggest difference between the Raptors – who came into the season thinking they could be a dark horse contender in the Eastern Conference — and the Grizzlies who are a championship contender despite being one of the youngest teams in the NBA.
The Raptors knew they were going to be in tough, not only because of their own recent struggles, but because of what the Grizzlies represent. They are a big, tough, talented group that plays with some snarl and some swagger – a good portion of it provided by Brooks, who Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins called the team’s ‘tone setter’.
Brooks set the tone early as he drilled a three on his first touch, one of four for the game on seven attempts. He got into Siakam every chance he could too.
“They are aggressive,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse before the game. “They’ve got some physical bodies and some physical-type players. I think they do try to go out there and almost try to intimidate you with some of that physicality … my concern would be can you play through the bumps? When they’re bumping you constantly, they’re not gonna call all the bumps. They can’t. It’s like I always say, if five guys are fouling you at the same time, they can’t call them all. You’re gonna have to play through some physicality. That would be my message to the team tonight. Let’s not look for the calls. There are probably gonna be some that are called and some that aren’t. You’ve got to keep on balance and stay composed when they aren’t.”
To their credit, the Raptors didn’t seem to lack composure, but they sure seemed be short on overall talent and depth though their spirited finish suggested what is possible when their work rate increases – Toronto out-rebounded Memphis 14-3 on the offensive glass in the second half, a mirror image of the first as each team finished with 17.
Still, among the Raptors regulars only Siakam and Anunoby looked like the equal of the Grizzlies, athletically, though Barnes had flashed too. Each provided some moments – like Anunoby’s block from behind on a Morant drive in the first quarter, or when Siakam intercepted a lob intended for Grizzlies high-flyer Brandon Clarke and took it 90 feet, weaving through most of Grizzlies lineup on his way to the rim where he was fouled and converted a three-point play. Barnes offensive rebound and putback dunk in the fourth helped spark the Raptors late push.
But there were too many mistakes on the margins against an opponent where the talent disadvantage is so stark such as when Adams beat the Raptors down the floor and scored after missed three by Chris Boucher.
The Raptors played decently defensively in the first half – they held the Grizzlies to 41.8 per cent shooting – but they had a hard time finishing plays against the bigger, stronger team and shot just 29.6 per cent from the floor themselves. That combined with the Grizzlies 14-3 edge in offensive rebounding allowed the visitors to take a 57-43 lead into the break.
Other times, the Raptors didn’t have an answer for the Grizzlies size, such as they play late in the third quarter when Adams simply sealed an over-matched Scottie Barnes who was fronting him and Morant lobbed a pass over Barnes and into Adams for the uncontested dunk.
Overall the Raptors did a solid job contesting Morant, but as has been the case so often when Toronto has worked hard to disrupt an opposing star, there were too many opportunities for their teammates when he got off the ball. Morant had a career-high 17 assists as the Grizzlies pushed their lead to 93-75 to start the fourth as they shot 16-of-21 in third period. Morant was able to get Memphis a good shot at will and when that didn’t work he kept it, shooting 6-of-7 in the frame.
The Raptors certainly tried to push, but the Grizzlies proved to be too heavy a boulder to move.
