Grizzlies at Raptors
The Toronto Raptors showed off all of their offensive power in a 130-105 drubbing of the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday and are winners of three of their last four games. The Raptors will try to pick on another Western Conference foe when they host the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday.
"Make shots, everything's easy," Toronto coach Dwane Casey told reporters. "You make shots, it makes up for a multitude of sins. That's the difference in the game: vault up and shoot shots with conviction, play with force, play with pace, and we stayed with our triggers and played through our continuity stuff and found the right person. That's the way you have to play." The Raptors lead the Eastern Conference in scoring at an average of 111.6 points and knocked down 19 3-points in Friday's win, led by All-Star DeMar DeRozan's 6-of-10 effort. The Grizzlies entered play on Saturday 24th in the NBA in 3-point defense, allowing opponents to shoot 37.1 percent from beyond the arc, and began their road trip with back-to-back tough losses at Indiana and Detroit. Memphis fell by a total of six points in those two contests while being outshot at the free-throw line by a combined 68-29.
TV: Noon ET, FS Southeast (Memphis), TSN4 (Toronto)
ABOUT THE GRIZZLIES (18-33): Memphis went 14-of-14 at the free-throw line at Detroit on Thursday but watched the Pistons go 27-of-37 from the stripe in the 104-102 setback. "Our guys compete way too hard for us to be put in this situation night after night," Grizzlies interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters. "Thirty-seven to 14, you can't overcome that. We ask for help, we ask for clarification, 'what are we doing, how do we defend without.' Whatever call they're making. We need help, obviously. But you can't overcome a disparity like that and our guys are competing way too hard." Center Marc Gasol is 10-of-10 from the line over the last four games and is shooting 84.6 percent from the stripe.
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (35-16): DeRozan was in a 5-of-34 slump from 3-point range over a 10-game stretch before matching his season high with six made 3-pointers on Friday. "Move the ball," DeRozan told reporters. "We took what they gave us. We were aggressive. We didn't really force much. We got shots that we wanted. It was a combination of all those things -- we played well, too." Friday's outburst marked the third time this season that Toronto scored at least 130 points -- all since January 1.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Raptors SF CJ Miles (knee) sat out the last three games and remains day-to-day.
2. Grizzlies SG Tyreke Evans is being held out until the team can find a trade partner.
3. DeRozan scored 26 points in a 116-107 win at Memphis on Dec. 8.