The biggest Canadian baller came home on Wednesday night and he and his talented Memphis Grizzlies teammates showed the short-handed Toronto Raptors what they could do.
Superstars Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. dominated, Toronto’s own Zach Edey had an easy double-double against his opponents and Memphis erased a halftime deficit with a pulverizing third quarter on the way to a 138-107 win.
Jackson scored 32, Morant 26, Edey 13, with 14 rebounds and Memphis won for the 10th time in 11 games and is starting to look pretty scary.
Rookies Ja’Kobe Walter and Jamal Shead started and led Toronto, along with Ochai Agbaji, with 14 points.
The Raptors did not dress Jakob Poeltl (hip pointer), RJ Barrett (concussion Protocol), or Immanuel Quickley (injury recovery since it was a back-to-back), but still managed to lead by six through two quarters thanks to a spirited effort by the bench.
That group didn’t include Chris Boucher though. The longest-serving Raptor was cleared to play – for a night at least, with the veteran a possibility to be moved Thursday by the NBA’s trade deadline – but was held out. Memphis was missing starting shooting guard Desmond Bane, but had plucky guard Marcus Smart and Canadian Brandon Clarke in the lineup, plus Vince Williams for the first time in months. One of the NBA’s deepest and best teams didn’t look in sync yet though, especially early, and Toronto’s reserves surprisingly vastly outplayed the Memphis backups.
The problem for Toronto was the starters. Morant and Jackson were a notch above anyone else, Edey did what he wanted and those things, plus a rare Barnes off-night was too much for the Raptors to overcome against the franchise’s one-time expansion cousins.
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Miami outscored Toronto by 18 points in the third quarter, scoring 43 in all.
The game featured a rare opening tipoff with two Canadians jumping for the ball. There was Edey, the pride of East York, and Kelly Olynyk, who was born and raised in Scarborough before moving to Kamloops, B.C. Olynyk has served as a mentor to Edey in the past in his role as captain of Canada’s national team.
Early on Olynyk hit a three-pointer in his face and Edey responded by posting him up and nailing a short hook while being fouled. Later Edey blocked an Olynyk shot attempt. Olynyk didn’t have his best shooting night, but he was far from alone in that department.
Memphis destroyed Toronto in Tennessee earlier this season in a record-setting Raptors loss, but Toronto showed a lot more fight in this one.
The Raptors led 29-22 after a quarter, thanks to a 13-0 bench edge and led at the half despite shooting only one free throw (Memphis ended up shooting than twice as many for the game), but Barnes had only three points on 1-for-7 shooting. Barnes got rolling in the third, but the rest of the Raptors struggled mightily.
Toronto was coming off a 121-115 home loss to the New York Knicks on Tuesday, but had won 6-of-8 and its young players showed well against the Knicks and had some nice moments against Memphis as well.
The remaining Raptors post-deadline will head to Oklahoma City for a date with Canadian superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on Friday. The three-game road trip will continue in Houston Sunday and in Philadelphia Tuesday.
@WolstatSun