Starters benched. Bench Mob dominate.

The Memphis Grizzlies come into this game on a two-game losing skid. The Raptors are in the midst of their 4-game home-stand and have to capitalize on these games to catch up to the 1st seed Boston Celtics. This feels like the best time for Toronto Raptors to take over the Eastern Conference with the powerhouse teams all plagued with injuries and in disarray.

Jakob Poeltl meets Canadian Dillon Brooks at the rim.

The Raptors did start this game off well. First play of the game, JV pump fakes Marc Gasol out of his boots at the 3-point line (now that he is feared) and drives toward the paint and lays down a Lithuanian-Lightning Dunk. This set the tone for the first half as the Raptors' starters dominated the first half. They played great with ball movement, player movement and active on the glass. Bench mob played great as well when they came in near the end of the 1st quarter and beginning of the 2nd quarter. Dwane Casey elected to go with Norman Powell over CJ Miles who was available to play in this game after missing 3 games due to a sore knee.

The Raptors took a double-digit lead into halftime as the Raptors gave off the belief that this will be another one of this solid Toronto Raptors definitive wins. Of course, in typical Raptors fashion, this lead disappeared in seconds. The third quarter really showed off what the weakness of the team is and what the strength of the team is. Toronto could not buy a basket from outside as the Grizzlies followed their scouting report and let the Raptors shoot as many threes as they like. Raptors are ranked 23rd in 3-point accuracy in the NBA and for good reason. As they shot 3/24 from deep at this point in the game as the Grizzlies took advantage and stole the lead.

The starters struggle as the Grizzlies make their comeback in the 3rd quarter.

Casey mind-boggled of how poor the Raptors were shooting and how the starters were losing this game. He decided to make a gutsy move and benched the starters for the rest of the game. He threw on the Bench Mob with little over 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and finally inserted CJ Miles into the game. Instant results, as CJ Miles hits the first outside shot and gave the Raptors a sort of comfort. As Delon and VanVleet soon connected from deep soon after.

The fourth quarter began and the Bench Mob were still on the court as Casey wanted to roll with the lineup that was working and which gave him energy on both sides of the court. The starters did not show up in the second half as they allowed straight line drives, 2nd chance points, and bad shot selection. The bench is the strength of this year's Toronto Raptors team and they showed off tonight. The bench held the Memphis Grizzlies to 12 points in the fourth quarter compared to a 30-point third quarter allowed by the starters. Bench Mob led by VanVleet and Delon Wright dominated and were in cruise control for most of the fourth quarter.

Siakam and Poeltl provided tons of energy, defensive pressure and rebounding on both sides of the court. Miles provided that spacing and outside shooting that was lacking as the Raptors extend their winning streak to 2-games. The Raptors host the top seed Boston Celtics on Tuesday in a marquee match-up of the top two seeds in the Eastern Conference.

The Raptors clamp down on the Memphis Grizzlies limiting them to 12 points in the fourth quarter.

Pictures courtesy of: http://www.nba.com/grizzlies/photos/game/tor-180204