MEMPHIS—The Xs and Os can be discussed forever. The nitpicking of possession after possession and decision after decision can go on unabated in all corners of the internet. Lineups can be dissected and playing rotations debated, starting lineups talked about incessantly.

They can go on and on about coming out of this funk stronger, hale and healthy and better off for the demoralizing losses that are piling up, but Kyle Lowry will have none of it.

“The words mean nothing right now,” he said after the Toronto Raptors dropped their fifth game in a row, a tough 101-99 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies here Wednesday night.

Lowry is right, of course. No words are going to turn around this slump, no words are going to make errant shots go in. The Raptors can talk about turning things around until the proverbial cows come home. It is actions that will matter.

“I mean, fifth straight loss, we’re not playing good basketball,” Lowry said after his buzzer-beating potential game-winning shot went awry.

We’re playing hard but we’re not playing good basketball. We’re not shooting well, we’ve just got to figure it out.”

It was a confluence of typical events of late that allowed the Raptors to extend their longest losing streak to the longest for the franchise since February, 2015.

They were abysmal defensively until something clicked in during a fourth-quarter rally. The Grizzlies, behind a career-high 42 point night from Marc Gasol, shot 53 per cent through the first three quarters until Toronto held them to just 11 points in the fourth.

And Toronto’s offence sputtered most of the night; they were a collective 10-for-34 from three-point range as Patrick Patterson missed seven of his eight attempts, Terrence Ross was 2-for-7 and both had crucial misses in the final two minutes.

“Some of it is rhythm, some of it is guys playing in different positions and some of it is just missing shots,” Toronto coach Dwane Casey said. “I have to do a better job of drawing things up for them, get them different looks, whatever it is. I have all the confidence in the world in our shooters. You have to continue to shoot them, take them with conviction, take them with confidence and they are going to go in. You don’t forget how to shoot the basketball.”

A night after starting a frontcourt of Jonas Valanciunas and Jared Sullinger for the first time, Toronto switched to Valanciunas and Patrick Patterson on Wednesday.

The move certainly began horribly for Toronto because Gasol ate up Patterson in the first three minutes, scoring Memphis’s first 13 points. He made baskets in the post and hit three three-pointers in what turned into a 19-point quarter, the most prolific scoring quarter by a Raptors opponent this season.

While Casey went with Jared Sullinger rather than Patterson to start the second half it didn’t matter; Gasol made a three-pointer on his first shot.

Even if Lowry wasn’t interested in talk — and his actions in a personal 14-point fourth quarter spoke volumes — Casey was offering words of encouragement.

“It’s a long year,” the coach said. “Guys have to stay together, stay positive. I didn’t feel any quit whatsoever out of our group and that’s important.

“I told them your true fans, everyone will still be behind you. Just stay together and grind it out. We are going through a grind time. We will be stronger after this, coming out of this.”

A Lowry four-point play — his NBA-leading sixth of the season — got the Raptors within two points Wednesday with just over two minutes remaining.

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Lowry tied it with 90 seconds left but Toronto missed a chance to take the lead when Patterson missed his final three-point attempt of the night.

Gasol gave Memphis a two-point lead with about 28 seconds to go and Toronto’s last shot evaporated with a Lowry three-point miss at the buzzer.

“I got the shot that I wanted,” said Lowry, who finished with 29 points. “I wish I could have been more on balance but I barely missed it. I thought it was going in, to be honest, when it left my hands.”

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