Stuck in a slow tempo game where their three-point shooting had abandoned them in the same way the referees’ whistles appeared to, the Toronto Raptors were deep in the basketball bunker on Sunday night.
This is what the Raptors had expected against the Memphis Grizzlies, a team that wants to trap their opponents in the quicksand of a game under 100 points, where they can wear them down and emerge from that bunker with another win.
The Raptors survived though, taking a 98-85 win away with them, snapping a two-game losing streak and learning something about themselves as they head into this last long stretch of the regular season.