Rockets Fueled by Late Game Push Over Grizz.

Colin Rafferty –

Your Memphis Grizzlies lost last night to the Houston Rockets, 108-99.

Led by Alperen Sengun and Kevin Durant, the Rockets were able to put together a run late in the third quarter and in the beginnig of the fourth, to surge past the Grizzlies and never look back.

A tale that is as old as time, at least for this Grizzlies team. Play good ball in the first half, second come out flat and end up losing.

After getting down 12-5 in the early goings, they were able to find a rythym and stay in front of the Rockets while shooting poorly. That all changed in the second half.

They only scored 23 and 22 in the second half, you cannot expect to get a lot of games won by continually scoring under 30 points in a quarter.

Outside of Sengun and Durant, who scored 33 a piece, Tari Eason added 17 pts and 7 rebounds, but that was about it for their offense. A few guys had 8 pts, and everyone else was under 5.

Despite shooting poorly, the Grizzlies were up at the half 51-54. They were also up by 1 going into the fourth, but as I mentioned in earlier, that was a part of the run where the Grizzlies stopped scoring and let the Rockets come storming back.

37% from the field, 19% from three-point land, I mean that is about as bad of a shooting night you can have and still be somewhat in the game by the start of the fourth.

What seemed to be working in the first half, getting out in transition and pushing the ball up the floor, was nonexistent in the second half.

They did battle for rebounds, but at several points in key situations, they had nobody getting the defensive boards and allowed the Rockets to get 2-3 different shots up before ultimately drilling one.

They looked like a team that had shown up to Houston that day, because well that’s what they did.

After the postponed game on Saturday the Grizzlies were dealing with what everyone in Memphis was doing, the snow. Planes were grounded on the 25th when they were expected to leave.

No Jock Landale, who was out of the lineup due to Personal Reasons, I hope all is well for the Landale family.

The Grizzlies had 5 players in double-digit points, led by Santi Aldama and Jaren Jackson Jr. who both posted 17 pts and 7 rebounds, respectfully. Jaylen Wells had 12, GG Jackson had 14 pts off the bench, and KCP locked in 11 pts.

Cam had a terrible shooting night and so did Cedric, Cam however did do a good job of playing the point dishing out 13 assists, with 5 pts and 5 reb.

GG Jackson was flying around last night and showing more and more promise after he has come back from playing with the Hustle.

It truly is hard to win when you have the litany of injuries and most of them in the guard room, nobody that can truly lead this team when the chips are down.

If the Grizzlies had Landale available tonight he could’ve given guys like Santi and Prosper help dealing with the size and skill of Sengun.

Sengun had one move, get the ball go to the basket, spin, and put up a shot; he did this repeatedly with no one figuring out that he ONLY does that.

Yet again we are here, losing to a team that they came out playing harder than in the first half.

The Grizzlies are now 18-26 on the season and currently sit at 12 right behind the Dallas Mavericks at 19-27.

They will face off against the 19-28 Charlotte Hornets tomorrow inside FedEx Forum.