Game summary: The Raptors defeated Grizzlies in the first half, 122-114

If raptors are heading to schedule review week, consider the first test completed.

Due to poor performance and a lazy defense, Toronto was 17 points behind the Memphis Grizzlies. However, they pulled together in the second half and, thanks to an excellent star-bench match and Fred VanVleet's best shot of the season, the Raptors got their best win of 2018-19 until now – pounding the Grizzlies 122-114.

In opening the way for the Raptors, here is the combination of Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard.

The two played 37 minutes, while Lowry scored 24 points, a top in the team, and Leonard had 17 points and 10 rebounds. More importantly, they played very important minutes between the third and fourth minute. Ten minutes after halftime, Nick Nurse started to narrow the gap with 12 points up on the Grizzlies. Lowry and Leonard took turns supporting the queues until the end of the fourth quarter.

The result was a resounding success, with the two stars combining 11 badists in the game, creating an open appearance for a Raptors offense that seemed lost to a long and difficult Memphis team. They even did it … one for the other.

The other big beneficiary of these helpers was Fred VanVleet. VanVleet made six shots, including three from the city center, to score 18 points. What's more, he was badigned to Mike Conley for all of his second half-day minutes, doing a great job eliminating the star player from his game. Conley still had 20 but needed 19 shots to get there . Whatever the damage he did when he left and took off in the first half, Fred slows down when Fred is at his grill.

The game started to look good for visitors. The Raptors opened the scoring on an 8-0 run, but a quick stop by J.B. Bickerstaff led to a 9-2 run for Memphis. The Grizzlies apparently surprised Toronto with their physical appearance, while they recovered some buckets in offensive rebounds.

They also began to set a theme for the first half, like any pick and roll featuring one of Conley's or Marc Gasol's becoming deadly. Although both teams shot more than 60% of the goals in the first period, Memphis made the division 12, thanks to a multitude of mid-course floats, free-fall pbades and swing sequences.

Give Nick Nurse some credit because the adjustments made at half-time immediately affected the game. Some Gasol shots extended Memphis' lead to 17, but Toronto moved their defense back to an area just before the midpoint of the third. That slowed down the Grizzlies just enough, while the Raptors starters slipped off the other end.

As starters showed up at a Lowry-plus-bench training to close the quarter, Toronto has narrowed the gap to four.

To start the fourth, presto change-oit was now Kawhi with the bench unit. The combination of Leonard and OG Anunoby blew up a few pick and roll Grizzlies, while VanVleet started throwing at the other end.

Late in the game, the Raptors were the team that had the daggers, although Memphis had more clutch experience.

A VanVleet three raised the Raptors four with 3:27 left. This was followed by another, and then a Kawhi three with a little more than a minute. That's an eight-point lead and seal the win.

With this win, Toronto ranks 18-4, the league's best result, while he's looking forward to hosting the Warriors on Thursday night. Memphis falls to 12-8.

Other observations:

• Marc Gasol is still a superstar. The man scored 27 points on 14 shots, a top in the match, 4 out of 6, and nightmare for Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas. The Raptors have managed to compensate for this, just enough, with an aggressive guard defense to make the roll / pop pbades more difficult. This is just another way VanVleet impacted the game.

• Toronto rookie Jaren Jackson Jr. had some big problems from the start, and he struggled to shake it. Although it seemed like a problem when he was in it (he and JaMychal Green crushed the Raptors in rebounds for a few minutes in the first period), the Raptors benefited from him by playing only 19 minutes.
• It's great to see the bench getting to know each other a little this week as C.J. Miles and OG Anunoby come back from injury. Miles made his three shots tonight, and usually the bench looked more fluid even when they were out without Leonard or Lowry. It's a work in progress, but it's progress.
• Once for Serge Ibaka, who has made seven pitches in this game that no one will talk about. Two months after the start of the season, it's as if we should not consider Ibaka's steadiness, but he was so strong in attack tonight, a night when the Raptors had to pbad the 120 mark to win .