Grizzlies vs. Pelicans Preview

Colin Rafferty

Your Memphis Grizzlies play the 3rd NBA Cup game of the season tonight, as they are in New Orleans to take on the Pelicans.

The Pelicans come into the game 3-15, after snapping a 9-game losing streak with a win over the Bulls on Monday.

New Orleans is one of the few teams that is statistically worse than the Grizzlies, at this point in the season. They are in the bottom third of offense, defense, and point differential.

The Grizzlies come into the game after a hard-fought loss to the Nuggets, one that saw Zach Edey only play 6 minutes. He will be listed as QUESTIONABLE tonight as he is recovering from a migraine that reared its ugly head during the Nuggets game.

He was seen yesterday at practice going through shooting and some defensive drills, but no contact as they are waiting for an evaluation before the game tonight.

Edey did miss two games last year with a similar problem.

The Grizzlies have dealt with injuries all season, hopefully this one is short lived, and he is back on the court being the dominate big man they need.

Migraines are tricky, usually brought on by lack of sleep or food, and almost always accompanied by stress; thankfully the Grizzlies had a day-off inbetween games to get him rested up and ready to go.

These two teams played each other earlier this season with the Grizz winning 128-122 on October 23rd. Ja Morant was the leading scorer with 35 points.

That seems like a lifetime ago, only a month, but that month has been filled with a lot of talk.

The Grizz will need to keep an eye on Trey Murphy III, who is averaging around 20 points a game for the Pelicans. Additionally, they have to make sure that Saddiq Bey doesn’t get going from deep as he has been hitting multiple threes over the last 10 games.

The three-point line has been a point of contention for Grizzlies fans for a while now. There always seems to be someone I have never heard of that is lighting it up from downtown, Peyton Watson who are you?

There needs to be an understanding that yes, the Grizz are spread thin, but this was happening routinely under Taylor Jenkins.

Santi, who has played great this year defensively, should not be shading the ball handler every time his guy doesn’t have the ball.

I digress; the Grizzlies will again need to have all-hands on deck. The play recently has looked better, and I expect it to continue.

Iisalo still has some learning to do but has done a better job at recognizing that leaving some guys in helps the team. It is not perfect yet and he still does make some odd substitutions, but it has looked and felt different.

This is the start of a perfect opportunity for the Grizzlies to stack some wins. They have the Pelicans, Clippers, Kings, Spurs, Clippers, and Portland in their next 6 games, these are all winnable games and if the Grizz get on a streak, they could see themselves back at .500 by December 7th.

“The NBA season doesn’t start until after Christmas” they say. It looks like a great opportunity to get healthy, stack some wins, and remind the fans why we cheer so hard.

The Grizzlies are currently 3rd (1-1) in the West Group B, behind the Lakers at 3-0 and Clippers at 2-1. If the Grizzlies want to secure their spot for a chance at the NBA Cup, they will need to win today and Friday against the Clippers.

Tip-off inside the Smoothie King Area is at 7 PM CST, you can listen live on 92.2 FM ESPN or on the Audacy App or watch live on the FanDuel Sports Network, pregame is at 6:30 PM CST.