Raptors had a letdown in the third quarter and it cost them a victory

The Raptors played hard for three of the four quarters and were playing well going into the half and were leading 52-45 and when the Grizzles took a run the Raptors fought hard and shot over 50% in the first quarter and so did the Griz but in the second quarter the Raptors got 26 points from their bench including Bayless with 10 points and Ed Davis had 7 points as the Raps put up 31 points and shot 12 of 19 from the floor in the quarter.

Then the Raps came out in the third quarter and the Grizzles took them to the woodshed and outscored the Raps 32-23 and they took it to the paint and outscored them inside 14-4 at a point in the quarter and scored the first 11 points of the quarter to take a 56-52 lead and they took a 7 point lead @ 70-63 which was a 25-11 run to open the quarter but the Raps cut it to two points by the end of the quarter 77-75.

The Raps fought hard again but it was them falling in love with the jumpers that killed them in the end especially when they hit them early in the quarter and then just kept shooting them and the game came down to a Kleiza jumper with just less than 14 seconds with the score 100-99 Griz and he missed which was his fourth jumper in a row and O.J. Mayo got the board and throw a touchdown pass to Tony Allen who got a layup and it was a three point lead. Jose Calderon throw up a three with 4 seconds left and it did not hit and the Raps lost 102-99 in a tough fought game but the third was very hard for the Raps.

The Raptors got a great effort with the bench had 54 of the raptors 99 points lead by Jerryd Bayless who had 18 points with 7 of 7 from the line and four assists, Kleiza had 12 points and 7 boards (tied with Grey for the team lead), Barbosa had 13 points but did have two assists which was same as his two turnovers. The best starter was James Johnson who had 14 points and 5 boards while Jose Calderon had 10 points and 9 boards to go with 4 of the Raptors 16 turnovers

Marc Gasol had 21 points and 5 boards while Rudy Gay had 23 points and 12 of the 35 boards to go with his four assists, and Mike Conley had 21 points and 5 boards as the Grizzles are now 10-1 against teams under 500.

some more ping pong balls for the Raps

Tom Mehegan