Colin Rafferty –
Your Memphis Grizzlies lost last night to the Portland Trail Blazers 122-115.
This was the second straight game the Grizzlies lost to Portland as they dropped the game on Friday night to a similar score, 115-135.
Well at least they are consistent.
Friday night marked the return of Scotty Pippen Jr back in the starting lineup, he would finish with 13 points, 6 assists, and 3 rebounds in 22 minutes of play.
As the Grizz try to do this balancing act of losing games to secure a lottery pick, they also have young guys that won’t back down. They have come out both games and played well, the problem, the third quarter.
It has happened more frequently than not that they have come out and just laid a fat goose egg in the third, whatever “adjustments” or the game plan is coming out of half is just bad.
And even if they do a relatively good job of staying with the other team in the third, by the time the fourth gets going, they quickly turtle and the opponent goes on a long run with the Grizzlies not scoring.
It happened again last night, the final 5-6 minutes of the 3rd, Portland went on something like 17-5 run, that just cannot happen, call a time out do something to corral these young guys and keep them in the game.
The first game on Friday against Portland featured some new faces for the Grizz, Taylor Hendricks and Walter Clayton Jr.
Hendricks would finish with 5 pts and 5 rebounds, Clayton Jr. had 11 pts, 3 reb, and 4 assists.
It will be an interesting couple of months as the Grizz have 1 guy who plays center that is available, that is Olivier-Maxence Prosper.
They are running out lineups with a lot of guards and sometimes no Center at all, having guys like Santi Aldama and GG Jackson taking swings at the position with a lot of weakside trapping to limit the big getting to the rim.
Jerami Grant and Donovan Clingan dominated the first game on Friday. Grant had a game high 23 pts, 2 reb, 2 assist and Clingan added 13 pts and 17 rebounds. Jrue Holiday added 20 pts, 5 reb, and 7 assists.
The Grizzlies were outrebounded, out assisted, gave up more points off turnovers, and were dominated in points in the paint. This trend will continue until they get back the big man Zach Edey, they just don’t have the size to deal with big men.
Yesterday’s game was a bit of the same medicine, tied up at half then came out with a dud in the third. I truly question what is said or proposed as the game plan when the Grizz are in the locker room, it just makes zero sense watching the first half and seeing a completely different team in the second half.
These guys have heart and play hard, just aren’t able to close the door on some of the teams they out in front of. Maybe there are no adjustments, maybe it’s just continuing to do this, and we will see what happens.
The biggest issue following the trades is that these guys already had not played a whole lot together, now we have even more guys that have never played with each other and the knowledge of tendencies and where guys will be just aren’t there. Synchronicity is important to teams, those without it flounder.
Despite shooting better than the Trail Blazers last night they were once again outrebounded, out assisted, and gave up more points off turnovers. They were able to keep the points in the paint number close (48-44).
One of the biggest red flags last night was that the Grizz allowed for 14 offensive rebounds, nearly 3 times as many as they pulled in. Teams will consistently get over on the Grizz because they allow them to continue to get looks. They have been objectively terrible defending the three, for about 5 years now, and with no true big man it could get worse.
That might be the intention without anyone saying it, they want a high lottery pick, and they’ve lost now 11 games this year after leading by 10 or more in the second half.
Last night’s game was exciting for guys like Javon Small and Olivier-Maxence Prosper, both coming off the bench and putting up 20+ points. Small finished with 22 pts, 6 reb, and 4 assists, O-Max was putting on a show, hitting his first 6 three-pointers and coming away with 25 pts and 5 rebounds, he would finish 7-8 from deep.
I was happy for Javon; he had struggled early on but seems to be more comfortable as the games go on. Let me also shoutout Jamai Mashack, he is defensively a menace, constantly ripping the ball away, hitting the floor for a loose ball and just creating havoc. Tennessee fans should know this well.
Kyle “Slo-Mo” Anderson got out on the court last night after missing Friday’s game due to an illness, he had some good plays and bad, but I always like the guys, he just shot too many threes for my liking.
Cedric, Jaylen and Cam did not play, there will be a revolving door of guys who have little things that are nagging them as they aren’t actively tanking, yet.
The Grizz will have a day-off today as they will be traveling down to San Francisco to take on the Warriors on Monday.
I was wondering what the hotel situation is going to be like with the NFL’s big game being played in Santa Clara, just south of San Fran. There will be plenty of people that filed in to watch the final game of the NFL season.
They obviously knew this would be the case before the season started but I wonder what, if anything, may have impeded them from having their normal spot, if it was difficult to find a spot, or if they would be running into any of the bruhaha from the fans and media that have been in San Fran for the week.
Monday’s game against the Warriors is at 9 PM CST.
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