Hornets Sting Distressing Grizzlies for Fourth Straight Loss.

Colin Rafferty –

Your Memphis Grizzlies dropped their fourth straight game, since coming back from London to the Charlotte Hornets 112-97.

They fall to 18-27 on the year, 9-14 at home, and 3-7 in their last 10.

It is a tale of two bears with this team, first half seems like there is some fight and good play, but whatever happens in the locker room at half has the Grizz playing terrible.

There was just no answer for the barrage of three’s that the Hornets reigning down on them. They jumped out to a 36-28 in the first, while shooting 50% from the field and 54% from three.

Despite being down by 8 they were able to claw back quickly and tie the game up at 40-all with about 9 minutes left in the 2nd.

With time expiring on the clock for the first half, the Grizzlies were only 4 points down. The buzzer sounded, but with time still on the clock, the Grizz thought the half was over, and the Hornets hit a three to go up 7.

Some weird clock operations, as the Grizz had hit a shot with their shot clock expiring, but with about 0.8 seconds left Miles Bridges hit the shot, and the Grizzlies looked perplexed.

From there on, they were fighting an uphill battle that they just couldn’t get over.

The Hornets were led by Brandon Miller’s 26 pt night, Moussa Diabate’s 18 pts and 19 rebounds, as well as 20 pts and 6 rebs out of Miles Bridges.

LaMelo Ball added 16 pts and 4 assists.

They just had no answer for Moussa Diabate, he was grabbing every rebound imaginable and forcing the Grizz to run around trying to get to the open three-point man, off an offensive rebound.

He just wanted it more last night, and that is his M.O.

For the Grizzlies, Jaren Jackson Jr. was their leading scorer with a 26 pt, 4 reb, 4 assist night. Cedric Coward added 17 pts, 5 assists, and 2 reb.

Outside of those two guys it was a tough night for the boys in blue.

GG Jackson showed off some incredible moves last night and keeps showing me that he is making improvements and is worthy of getting solid minutes, as they scramble to find the right rotations and lineups to get a win or two.

While Cam Spencer has done a pretty good job as a point guard, his shooting has dropped off a little bit.

His legs must be a little off from having to run around and create for other teammates, but they should figure out a way to get their best shooter opportunities to get good looks, they just haven’t.

Jaylen Wells provides great defense, but his shot hasn’t been falling either. They are just in a slump.

Hopefully with the news that Scottie Pippen Jr. and Ty Jerome were sent down to the Hustle for a practice means that they are just days away from hitting the floor.

This could be massive for the Grizz moving forward, they have had difficulties to say the least, at the point guard position this year.

Doesn’t help that most if not all the primary ball handlers have missed a significant amount of time this year.

The young, aggressive, chaotic Hornets continued their winning ways against a team that is spinning out in a whirlpool of injuries and an inability to close out games.

It is almost insanity watching these games and thinking well, they are up right now, let’s wait and see how this unfolds.

The Hornet’s dominated the rebound battle (43-29) and points in the pain (52-38). All while shooting a whopping 49% from the field and 40% from three-point land.

The Grizzlies were able to limit their turnovers to 13 this game, but when the other team gets off a combined 11 more shots and they are hitting them, it fell right into the arms of the Queen City bugs.

With a back-to-back coming up, Friday vs. New Orleans and Saturday vs. Minnesota, the Grizzlies will try to turn around their past misfortune and get a couple wins under their belt.

How they will do that exactly, is a mystery.

Minnesota will be staying the weekend in Memphis as they will play them on Monday as well, before hitting the road for 5 straight games.

Hopefully we can see Scottie and Ty get back before the road trip.

Some happy news came through the others day as Jaylen Wells, Cam Spencer, and Cedric Coward were all named to this year’s Rising Stars Challenge for the NBA All-Star game.

That’s great for these young guys, get some exposure, play with the other great young players in the league and enjoy the spoils of being some of the top young talent in the league.

I can complain all I want about this front office and how they handle free-agents, coaching hires, and what not, but they do have an innate ability to find some good talent in the draft.

As the days get closer to the trade deadline, we as Memphis fans might need to hold onto hope that they can continue to do so.

Side Note: I would like to wish a very Happy Birthday to our hometown kid made good, Marc Gasol, from his menacing Grizz Growl to the Conor McGregor celebration. He helped create the Grit ‘n’ Grind era of Grizzlies basketball that had the city fall head over heels for.

From a kid that played at Lausanne to having his number 33 retired by the organization, he was a true embodiment of what Grizzlies basketball is.

Thank you Big Spain.