(Sports Network) - The Memphis Grizzlies will stage their second reunion of
sorts on Tuesday night when they head north of the border to take on the
Toronto Raptors.
After Tayshaun Prince played his first game back in Detroit on Monday night
against the Pistons, the Grizzlies will now see a familiar face in the form of
Rudy Gay.
The Grizz sent Gay to the Raptors late last month, then flipped Jose Calderon
to the Pistons for Prince. Tuesday night will mark the first occasion for Gay
to face the team he played his whole career with prior to the trade.
"We can hang out and stuff after the game and stuff like that, but we're all
about business on the court," Gay said. "We're working on a streak right now.
We're trying to win games. We don't have time for all the emotional stuff."
Gay's Raptors have won five in a row after Monday's victory in Washington
against the Wizards. His old team is streaking as well. The Grizzlies have
taken four in a row after their win in Motown.
In a weird game with a broken scoreboard, the Raptors prevailed over the
Wizards, 96-88. With 24-second clocks on the floor and an air horn as the
official buzzer, Toronto moved to 6-2 since the acquisition of Gay and won
three in a row on the road for the first time since 2007.
"My old AAU coach used to tell me: 'If you put two rims up in the kitchen,
we'll play you.' So it don't matter," joked Gay.
DeMar DeRozan and Gay scored 24 apiece, while Kyle Lowry added 11 points and
10 assists. John Lucas III netted 10 off the bench.
The Raptors are one win shy of matching their total from last season with 23.
The Grizzlies brought their trademark defense to Detroit on Monday. After
allowing 30 points in the opening quarter, Memphis held the Pistons to 30 over
the next two quarters and left with a 105-91 victory.
Prince only managed four points in just under 20 minutes of action, but held
no ill will in his first trip back to Detroit. It was his only NBA home since
coming into the league in 2002. Prince won an NBA Championship with the
Pistons in 2004.
"These guys, what they did for me and my family, I don't hold any grudges
whatsoever," Prince said. "It was a great time. You never want to end on a bad
note. Nobody wants to do that. It was definitely unfortunate but I love all
those guys. I have great relationships with everybody. It's a situation where
it was time for me to start a new chapter."
Mike Conley led the Grizz in scoring Monday night with 19. Zach Randolph,
fresh off his second All-Star Game appearance, had 15 points and 10 rebounds
and Marc Gasol, Ed Davis and Quincy Pondexter all scored in double figures.
The Grizzlies shot 56 percent from the field against the Pistons and scored 26
points off 17 Detroit turnovers.
Memphis won this season's only matchup Toronto, a 103-82 drubbing in Memphis
on Nov. 28. Gay had 14 points and six rebounds for the Grizzlies that night.
The Grizz have won three in a row in Toronto.
The Sports Network