The Toronto Raptors fall to the Memphis Grizzlies at home, 118-102. Injuries and DNP’s continue to pile up, as they were already without three of their five starters for this matchup. Less than two hours before the game, Collin Murray-Boyles was also ruled out due to an illness, leaving them very thin.

Their offense ran dry to close out the game, after battling to keep it relatively close for three quarters. The missed opportunities and carelessness with the basketball headline my winners and losers from Monday night’s matchup against the Grizzlies.

Winners: Jamal Shead & Jakob Poeltl

Let’s start with the positives, and Jamal Shead once again delivered a double-double performance. While his shooting dropped off from the first quarter, he still managed to log 20 points off of 6-17 shooting to go along with 11 assists. He was the only Raptor to hit the 20-point mark, in a night where they shot a collective 43 per cent.

While Shead did not have an efficient shooting night, he elevated the play of his teammates, especially Jakob Poeltl. We are starting to see glimpses of ‘vintage Poeltl’ with his soft touch around the rim and positioning on the offensive glass. Poeltl is now averaging over 14 points and eight rebounds in his last four games, with six offensive rebounds in his last two outings. This is a direct result of Shead’s ability to drive the paint and draw the extra defender, which frees up Poeltl for the easy look.

The Shead-Poeltl connection is going to be important to generate instant offense on nights where buckets are hard to come by.

Loser: RJ Barrett

Yikes. Not the kind of night we’re used to seeing from the Raptors’ most consistent scorer. He was able to generate opportunities, just not able to convert at an efficient rate. He chipped in with 19 points but shot the ball at a 33 per cent clip, going 7-21.

Barrett also couldn’t capitalize from the charity stripe, shooting 4-9 on free throws. Leaving points on the board is one thing, but the Grizzlies did a great job of focusing their defensive gameplan on Barrett by shutting down his driving lanes. This made it hard for him to adjust and kept Barrett from ever really finding his flow.

It wasn’t just Barrett as the Raptors disappeared on offense in the fourth quarter. They ran into a wall with nine minutes left in the game that led to a Grizzlies 22-10 run. It’s times like this where the Raptors turn to Barrett for answers, it just wasn’t in the cards tonight. 

Loser: Ja’Kobe Walter

That’s another poor shooting night from Ja’Kobe Walter. He has now gone 6-25 over his last two games and 3-14 from behind the arc. You would hope that with all the injuries, he would make the most of the opportunities, but the shots just aren’t falling at an efficient rate.

He’s doing a lot of great things on the defensive side of the ball, it’s just a matter of shooting out of this slump. It’s not going to get easier for Walter as they host the Boston Celtics who currently have the fourth best defense in the league. 

Loser: Raptors’ Ball-Security

Hats off to the Memphis Grizzlies, as they did a great job of hounding the Raptors on the defensive end. They made it incredibly difficult for the Raptors to get comfortable on offense and pressured them every chance they had.

This feels like nitpicking, since the Raptors turned the ball over 14 times, which is right at their season average. That’s good for sixth in the league as they generally take good care of the ball. There were just plays where they committed unforced turnovers and were careless with the ball, which translated to 26 points off turnovers and 12 fast-break points for the Grizzlies.

Most nights, you can work with 14 turnovers, but in this case the Memphis Grizzlies made them pay. The Raptors now look ahead to Wednesday as they host the Boston Celtics, who force the eight most turnovers in the league.

The good news? Toronto ranks first, with 20 opponent turnovers per game.