Memphis Grizzlies (19-26) @ Toronto Raptors (34-13)
When: Saturday, January 19th, 7:30 P.M. ET
Where: Scotiabank Arena
Leading into tonight’s game:
- Injury Report: For the Raptors, Jonas Valanciunas (left thumb dislocation) and OG Anunoby (personal reasons) are out. For the Grizzlies, the injury report is to be determined.
- Eight straight: The Raptors enter Saturday’s contest having won a season-high eight straight games at Scotiabank Arena. The franchise record for consecutive wins at home is 12, and this was last accomplished Nov. 7, 2017 - Jan 1, 2018. While the Raptors just completed a road/home back-to-back, the Grizzlies come to Toronto on a back-to-back themselves after falling 122-116 to the Celtics in Boston on Friday night.
- Recent history: This is the second meeting between the Raptors and Grizzlies this season. The Raptors defeated the Grizzlies 122-114 in Memphis on Nov. 27, thanks to a huge fourth quarter effort from Fred VanVleet. Toronto won the fourth quarter 29-17, and VanVleet scored 12 of his 18 points in the final frame. Kyle Lowry had 24 points and six assists and Kawhi Leonard added 17 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Marc Gasol had 27 points to lead the Grizzlies in the loss.
Extra Assists
- 5,000 Club: Kyle Lowry contributed a 16-point, nine-rebound, eight assist, two-steal performance in Toronto’s 111-109 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Thursday. On his sixth assist of the night, Lowry became the 10th active player in the NBA to reach 5,000 career assists. After the game, he took a quick moment to reflect on the milestone but acknowledged that real reflection will happen down the road. “I would have never thought I would have gotten here when I started my career,” Lowry said. “I’ll look back on this when I retire.”
- Spicy game-winner: Pascal Siakam added a game-winning layup to his list of career firsts this season. With 13 seconds remaining, the Raptors went to Siakam and Siakam went to the rim, his layup falling through the net as the buzzer sounded. “We call him P. Skills for a reason," C.J. Miles said. "He’s got a lot of skills, a lot of things he can do with the basketball, off the basketball, both sides.” also recorded his 10th double-double of the season, finishing with 10 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, a steal and two blocked shots. The game-winner was the fourth buzzer-beating game-winning shot by a Raptors player in the last 15 seasons.
- Scoring run: Kawhi Leonard rested in Thursday’s game against the Suns, but his 33 points scored against the Celtics on Wednesday stretched his streak of consecutive games scoring at least 20 points to 20 games. This is a career-best for Leonard and it is the longest stretch of games with at least 20 points scored in the NBA this season. Vince Carter scored at least 20 points in 23 straight games to own the Raptors franchise record. Leonard is averaging 27.5 points per game and has topped 30 points 15 times this season.