Got sidetracked after last night’s 116-108 Grizzlies win over the Denver Nuggets. So rather than the standard post-game notebook, a few thoughts on both last night’s game and the immediate future of a very real playoff race:
Last Night’s Game, Signature Plays, and the Griz Three Factors: The Grizzlies enjoyed one of their best wins of the season last night. Down 17 points (86-69) late in the third quarter to a Denver Nuggets team whose league-best offense was humming, everything was going wrong.
Grizzlies basketball this season has been defined in large part by three statistical indicators: The team leads the NBA in turnover differential and points in the paint. And after a slow start they’ve pushed themselves up to 6th in offensive rebounding, a category where the Grizzlies lead the NBA a year ago.
But, down 17, with four minutes to play in the third quarter, the Grizzlies were lagging behind the Nuggets in all three of these pet categories. The Nuggets offense was not being disrupted and the Grizzlies were not getting themselves the extra possessions and easy baskets needed to offset their nightly deficiencies from long-range.
Two types of signature plays embody the brand of basketball the Grizzlies have thrived with this season: The Tony Allen Steal and the Zach Randolph Putback. Down 86-69, the Griz were also getting blanked on both of those types of tone-setting plays. Allen had zero steals. Randolph had a lone offensive rebounded, but no putbacks.
