I’ll try not to make these as long in the future, but, hey, it’s opening night!
The Lead: Well, the Grizzlies lost their opener tonight by double digits. But before people over-react to this, let’s establish some context. For starters, the team was missing Marc Gasol from the start with a sprained ankle and only got 15 unproductive minutes from Zach Randolph, who hit the floor hard in the first quarter, suffering a lower back contusion, tried to come back but was clearly struggling physically, and had to sit out the entire second half. We all knew that this team — built so much around its power game — would struggle if missing one of its starting bigs. But both? (And, yes, I blame myself for putting a Flyer cover jinx on them.)
- LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
- Mike Conley: The Man of the Match
Secondly, the Grizzlies lost both games to the Hawks (who return essentially the same roster) last season by double digits even with Gasol and Randolph.
And finally, the Grizzlies have a long history of deflating home openers, even in good seasons. Last season, the Grizzlies lost by 22 in the home opener to a mediocre Detroit Pistons squad but still got into the playoff race and finished with 40 wins. In 2005, the Grizzlies lost by 19 to the Miami Heat in the home opener and went on to 49 wins and a playoff appearance. In 2004, they lost the home opener by 12 to a severely undermanned Washington Wizards squad and ended up with 45 wins and made the playoffs. In other words, if you’ve been around the team awhile, then you’ve seen this play before. Though it is frustrating to see the team give a desultory performance in front of a large crowd, many of which may not see another game in person all season.
So, why did I actually find this game encouraging? Heading into this season what we thought we knew about the Grizzlies was this: The team’s starters were good, with the caveat of Mike Conley being inconsistent and a historically poor starter. And the bench was an enormous problem. Coming out of this game, there’s no reason to have lost any confidence in the starting lineup, with the added bonus of seeing Mike Conley begin a season with one of his better games. And with Darrell Arthur and Sam Young following up their strong preseasons with productive games tonight, the team shows signs of having two reliable bench options once the starting lineup is back intact. And that’s two more than the team had a year ago. So, provided Gasol and Randolph don’t miss much time — and right now their respective injuries appear minor — the Grizzlies look like they’re going to be fine. There are some rotation adjustments I might suggest, but I probably need to give it a couple more games before wading into that.
