Strong fourth quarter propels Raptors to win over undermanned Grizzlies

TORONTO – A crowd gathered around Chuck Hayes inside the Raptors dressing room after what felt like a playoff victory.

“Chuck Hayes for mayor, Chuck Hayes for mayor,” a voice chanted from across the room.

It’s not often the 31-year-old defensive specialist garners that kind of attention, but on this night Hayes was a hero of sorts.

In a game that Toronto was completely overmatched on the inside – they were outrebounded 50-35 and outscored 46-38 in the paint – it was Hayes who came up with two key defensive plays down the stretch, helping the Raptors to a 96-92 victory over an undermanned Memphis Grizzlies team that came into Wednesday night’s tilt with the best record in the NBA.

Both of Hayes’s big plays came in the final 90 seconds of the game. With the Raptors leading by two he took a charge on a driving Mike Conley and moments later his impressive defence forced Zach Randolph, to miss a 12-foot pull-up jumper that would have tied the game with just over 30 seconds left.

“He’s an old veteran and you have to have those kind of guys on your roster, on your bench, that are ready to willingly accept their role,” Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said of Hayes after the game. “He knows who he is; he’s one of the better big-man defenders in the league and he has a low centre of gravity. He does a great job and he was our MVP tonight.

“[Tonight] was a lesson for our bigs. We’ve got to come in with a disposition to go rebound. That’s one of the toughest teams to go against so that should be our measuring stick.”

Randolph and Mark Gasol had their way with the Raptors for most of the night – Gasol led all Grizzlies scorers with 22 points and added 12 rebounds while Randolph finished the game with 18 points and 18 boards – forcing Casey to limit Jonas Valanciunas’s minutes in the second half and go deep into his lineup in an attempt to find an answer for the Grizzlies frontcourt.

In the end, Hayes provided the necessary fix.

“My intent was just to try and make it hard for them,” Hayes said when asked about his plan for Gasol and Randolph when he first checked into the game in with just over 10 minutes to play in the fourth quarter and the Raptors trailing by five. “I’ve played against those guys a lot so I’m familiar with their tendencies.”

That’s not to say he was able to hold them off the boxscore completely. “I was bummed because they made four field goals in the fourth quarter and two of them came on me,” he said.

On one particular play, Hayes forced Gasol out to the perimeter only to watch the big man nail an impossible looking shot from 19 feet away.

“I was about to kick the scorer’s table when he made that shot, but I’m happy I kept my cool,” he said.

On the offensive end, DeMar DeRozan led the Raptors with 21 points and benefitted from not having to go up against the opposition’s top defender in Tony Allen, who was one of three Grizzlies players out with the flu.

Kyle Lowry scored 18 points, including a key basket with 8.2 seconds left in the game to put the Raptors up by four, and Terrence Ross, who shot just 1-for-7 in the first three quarters, came alive and poured in 14 of his 16 points in the final frame.

“Like most players, I think when you see the ball go in the hoop it opens you up and gets you going,” Casey said. “A winning player will find other ways to contribute and that’s what [Terrence Ross] did. He was down on himself a little bit but got himself going by watching the ball go through the hole and seeing another one go through the hole. Once that happened his defence picks up, his rebounds picks up – human psychology.”

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