Month: November 2013

Grizzlies 97, Kings 86

• Larry Kuzniewski
• Zach Randolph was a major factor in the Grizzlies’ two road wins this weekend.

First things first: yesterday afternoon in Sacramento, the Grizzlies got themselves back to .500 with a road win over the Sacramento Kings on the second game of their four-game West Coast swing. Just like their win over the Lakers on Friday night, it wasn’t always pretty, but pretty doesn’t show up in a box score, and the win itself is certainly more significant than style points.

Just as Zach Randolph led the way against the Lakers, he did so again against the Kings with 22 points and 10 rebounds, but yesterday’s game wasn’t just about Z-Bo. Marc Gasol, despite still not looking like he knows where he is all the time, had 19 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists, and Mike Conley also had 19 points and 9 assists. The play of these three guys goes a long way to smooth over any issues the Grizzlies may be having system-wise. The offense in general was much improved against Sacramento, though; the Grizzlies’ ball movement was impeccable, and the crisp and smart passing got them some easy baskets that they weren’t getting two weeks ago. That was an encouraging development.

The bench didn’t really do much. Mike Miller played almost 21 minutes and didn’t attempt a shot, according to the box score. I watched the game and I feel like I remember him taking at least one, but… Mike Miller serves almost no purpose if he’s not going to attempt a single field goal. Quincy Pondexter’s play has improved, but he’s still not playing at the level he’s capable of. Kosta Koufos was a bright spot, scoring six and grabbing six rebounds in only 13 minutes of play.

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Joerger continues to tweak the rotation. The nine-man rotation he played in Los Angeles on Friday expanded to ten on Sunday, but only because Ed Davis played 2 minutes and attempted one shot. The Miller/Pondexter/Bayless/Koufos bench seems to get the job done, but one has to wonder whether it would’ve been better to play one of the young guys if Mike Miller was going to do nothing but grab 3 rebounds and make an assist.

The defense continues to be pretty awful. Kings players had no trouble getting into the lane—which is unsurprising, because everyone else is doing it—and the Grizzlies let a 20-point lead shrink to just 3 in a massive Kings run across the third and fourth quarters before tightening up and putting the game away. I’m not sure why the defense is so bad—that is, I’m not sure why they’re playing as poorly on defense as they are—but they’re going to have to get that turned around going forward. As it stands, they’ve won close games against bad teams by scoring just enough to get over the hump. That’s not going to cut it…

The Clippers? Tonight? Seriously?

…tonight, when the Grizzlies take on the Clippers in Los Angeles on the second game of a back-to-back (SEGABABA). The NBA schedule is a curious thing, but I think this Clippers game—yet another matchup in what I think is one of the few genuine rivalries (that is, not completely media-created) in the league—kind of snuck up on everyone because of when it’s being played.

• Larry Kuzniewski
• This apparently happened zero times against the Kings. Miller was 0-0 from the floor.

The Clippers are sitting at 7-3, with the 2nd highest offensive rating in the league (they’re averaging 112.7 points per 100 possessions) and the 27th-ranked defense. What does that mean for tonight’s game? It means the Grizzlies had better to figure out how to defend—especially the pick and roll—or they’re not going to have a chance tonight. Chris Paul is the Duke Ellington of the pick and roll, and he’s going to absolutely shred the Grizzlies’ lackluster defense tonight if they come out flat.

Overall, the Clippers improved in the offseason, especially with the addition of J.J. Redick, whom Grizzlies fans coveted. They’re not going anywhere this season, that’s for sure, and if the Grizzlies want to keep their side of the rivalry intact, they’re going to have to dig deep and execute in a way that they haven’t yet this season.

This one’s going to go one of two ways: (1) the Grizzlies come out and play with heart and intensity and pick up the defense just enough to let Z-Bo beat Blake Griffin into submission while Marc Gasol does mean things to DeAndre Jordan, thus carrying the Grizzlies’ offense to a third-straight win. Or (2) the Grizzlies’ worse-than-usual defense allows the Clippers to put up 140 points, and we get to see a lot of Calathes, Franklin, and Leuer for a change.

Honestly, if the game starts to get away from them early, don’t be surprised if the Grizzlies decide to pull the plug and save their energies for the Golden State game on Wednesday—which isn’t a bad strategy at all. Golden State is a team the Grizzlies have proven they can beat, and even with a loss tonight to the Clippers, a win at Golden State means the Grizzlies went 3-1 on this road trip and they’d return home at 6-6, which is far better than some thought they would be at this point, including me in my darker moments of “Why are the Grizzlies bad this year?” angst.

They’re a work in progress, and on a SEGABABA I’m not sure they have the defense to clamp down on this Clips team yet. Either way, it’ll be interesting to watch.

• Larry Kuzniewski
• You may not recognize him under his facemask, but Quincy Pondexter played well against the Lakers Friday.

The Grizzlies are in Sacramento to play the Kings this afternoon (the game starts at 5pm Memphis time), hot on the heels of their gutty-but-ugly win over the Lakers in L.A. on Friday night, led by Zach Randolph’s commanding 28 point, 11 rebound performance. The Grizzlies need to use that game as a springboard for the rest of this 4-game West Coast swing; 3-1 on the trip means the Grizzlies come back home on Friday to play the Spurs at .500. Standing in their way at the moment is a Sacramento team that, while not very good, poses some interesting challenges.

1. Demarcus Cousins is playing well this year, presumably reinvigorated by the fact that his team now has a real owner and a real commitment from the front office to, you know, actually try to have a good basketball team instead of just try not to lose any money. Normally I wouldn’t be worried about Cousins, because although he’s an excellent player, Marc Gasol typically plays very good defense against him. This afternoon, the way that Marc Gasol has been playing—against the Lakers, he turned in one of the most listless 18-8-3-3 stat lines I’ve ever seen, if there can be such a thing—I worry that Cousins is going to be hard to contain. The Grizzlies’ interior defense has been pretty terrible thus far, and DMC is not the kind of player against whom you want to have a bad interior defense.

2. Speaking of which, the Grizzlies perimeter defense has to be better, too. Mike Conley and Tony Allen have to do a better job of communicating about which one of them is switching onto which guy, and they both need to do a better job of making sure they’re staying home on spot-up shooters as much as they can. The Lakers’ shooting guards torched the Grizzlies, both because they were open more than they should have been and because point guards were able to drive into the lane at will and kick it out however they wished. The Grizzlies, let’s be honest, barely beat the Lakers. If they’re going to build momentum out of this West Coast swing, they need to tighten up and take care of business against the Kings, too.

3. Joerger’s rotations still need some time to settle. Against the Lakers, 9 guys played: the starting five, Mike Miller, Jerryd Bayless, Kosta Koufos, and an anonymous masked man (Quincy Pondexter sporting a pretty cool black facemask to go with the broken nose he suffered against Indiana). No Ed Davis, no Nick Calathes, no Jamaal Franklin, and no Jon Leuer. Clearly the Grizzlies’ depth is nice, but while he can’t play 12 guys major minutes, I do think Joerger is going to have to play Davis (but only with Koufos and Gasol and not with Randolph) and Calathes (as a backup point guard while Bayless plays off the ball) for the Grizzlies to be at their best. Those guys have to develop, and they’re not going to do it from the bench. I don’t think Bayless is a better point guard than Calathes, even considering turnovers. The rotations are going to have to settle, but something tells me we’re going to see another couple of “12 guys playing more than ten minutes” performances this week. I’m not sure that’s tenable for the whole year.

Today’s game is an important one for the Grizzlies. It’s a chance to use the momentum from Friday’s win to build more momentum, and a chance to get back to .500 and create a little more of an atmosphere of calmness around this team. With any luck, the defense will tighten up through playing together, and the Grizzlies will deal with the Kings without too much difficulty.