The Lead: The story of last night’s game was Rudy Gay and Tony Allen forming a frequently destructive defensive tandem.
With usual starter Xavier Henry out with a bruised knee and coach Lionel Hollins opting to keep O.J. Mayo in his sixth-man role, Sam Young, rather than Allen, got the start at the two-guard position. This essentially put Allen in the role of the team’s fifth wing player and he didn’t enter the game until about three minutes into the second quarter. And yet, but the end of the night, Allen had played a season-high 34 minutes, registering 14 points (5-9 shooting), 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 6 steals.
The Grizzlies got off to a sluggish start, falling behind 22-10 late in the first quarter, and were down 31-20 when Allen made his first appearance at the 8:51 mark of the second quarter. But over the next five minutes, Allen and Gay lead a 16-3 Grizzlies run to take the lead, blitzkrieging the Raptors’ offense to the tune of six combined steals, three of them leading to transition dunks, including a climatic Gay steal in which he fed Allen for a dunk to put the Griz up 36-34.
On the night, Allen and Gay played together — by my count — for 29 minutes, during which the Grizzlies outscored the Raptors 71-46 and the duo combined for 9 of their 11 steals. These 29 minutes also included a three-and-a-half minute stretch in which Hollins scrapped back-up point guard Greivis Vasquez’ usual second-half minutes and instead experimented with a big lineup that put Gay, Allen, and O.J. Mayo together along the perimeter — with Gay essentially playing point-forward. The Griz looked good in this configuration, outscoring the Raptors 5-2, with Gay registering an assist.
Might we see this look again?
