The Toronto Raptors fall to the shorthanded Memphis Grizzlies in one of their worst loses of the season.
Raptors were heavy home favourites against a Grizzlies team that was completely depleted. They were missing Steven Adams, Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Marcus Smart, Brandon Clarke, Jake LaRavia and Derrick Rose.
Still, Memphis found a way to win this game over a Raptors team that was just missing Jakob Poeltl.
The Raptors never led in this one as the Grizzlies led wire-to-wire and lead by as many as 18.
Toronto played uninspired and sloppy basketball. They had 17 turnovers and once again struggled from three.
Jaren Jackson Jr. was an absolute nightmare for the Raptors to deal with in this game. Jackson Jr. had 27 points. Also Luke Kennard caught fire from three as he finished with 19 points.
For the Raptors RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes led the way. Barrett led all scorers with 29 points and he had 8 rebounds. Barnes had a huge statline of 22 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists and 6 blocks. However, he turned the ball over 5 times.
Dennis Schroder led the bench with 11 points and Gradey Dick was scoreless in 15 minutes.
The Raptors are rebuilding so bad loses are expected but this one was inexcusable. Toronto had no answer for a Grizzlies team that was missing many key players.
Toronto suffers another embarrassing loss this season as this one has to be right behind the Pistons loss for the worst one of the year.
With the loss Toronto now has the sixth worst record in the NBA. It’ll be interesting to see how the Raptors approach the rest of the season.
If the Raptors finish with the 6th worst record in the league, they’ll have a 45.8 percent of keeping their 2024 first-round pick which is Top-6 protected.
The Raptors are starting to pile up the loses as they have now lost 7 of their last 8 games.
On tap next
The Raptors have three days off before their next game on Jan. 26 when they host Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers.
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