Larry Kuzniewski
Marc Gasol finished with 31 points.
On a night when there were things going on in the world—or in Paris, specifically—that made it feel a little ridiculous to be worried about the outcome of a professional sporting event, the Grizzlies finally played well enough in front of their home crowd for Friday night’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers to be what an NBA game is supposed to be: entertainment, an escape, a time to have fun together watching men compete, watching them play.
Before Friday night, the 2015-16 Grizzlies season has been marked by a distinct lack of joy, a sense of pressure and worry and a desperate need to improve. During the game and after—after Zach Randolph tipped in his own miss with .6 seconds on the clock to steal back a win the Griz tried valiantly to give to Portland in the last four minutes—the Grizzlies played loose, with energy, and they looked like themselves.
I don’t really have organized thoughts on this game (funny how the last time that happened was also a Portland game) but I did find things to celebrate and things to criticize:
★ Mario Chalmers came to play. After the game, Chalmers would admit that he was a little worried about how he’d be received, and whether he’d be booed for his Memphis/Kansas heroics, but he got a warm welcome from the crowd and then went out and made stuff happen in his 19 minutes. Joerger said postgame that he ended up playing Chalmers ten minutes longer than he’d planned on because he was doing so well.
It was clear that in absence of any knowledge of the schemes the Grizzlies use on offense and defense, Chalmers was just making up for it by playing as hard as he possibly could. That worked in his favor. He made a three, got some layups, played very good defense, had 2 assists and probably would’ve had more than that if some shots had fallen for other guys. Heat fans seem convinced that Chalmers is a frustrating player at times, so we’ll see, but last night was a good start, and has the potential to be a massive upgrade. The team just moved more fluidly when he was on the floor last night.
Larry Kuzniewski
JaMychal Green played like his life depended on it.
★ Marc Gasol doesn’t look right and still scored 31 points. The Blazers couldn’t stop Gasol last night, as he determined he needed to score, and Scoring Marc showed up—even nailing a wide-open three in the waning minutes of the third quarter. It was a flash of last year’s aggression from Gasol, something that’s been sorely missed so far this year, and it was good to see.
★ JaMychal Green’s hustle knows no bounds. Green was everywhere last night, and though he didn’t have the most impressive stat line—6 points and 4 rebounds in 18 minutes—he was everywhere on offense and defense, and you could tell his strategy was just to outwork everyone on the other team. It works well for him, and in the absence of Brandan Wright (and I heard some rumbles that his knee might be bothering him for a while last night, but nothing I could verify) the team needs its bench bigs to play with that kind of tenacity. Green could probably play even more minutes than that in these sorts of games. He’s starting to fit in.
★ Jeff Green had a pretty good night. It does happen from time to time. Green’s 14 points even though he shot 4-10 from the field are indicative of how aggressive he was in trying to get to the rim. He had steals at important moments last night, too, showing a defensive awareness that he sometimes (OK, usually) lacks but that makes his game much more effective. I’m not sure what Jeff Green’s future in Memphis is, but every game he plays is not a referendum on it; last night he did well.
Larry Kuzniewski
Mario Chalmers fit right in last night.
★ The Grizzlies were bad down the stretch and lucky they won. After building up a double-digit lead, and swapping JaMychal Green in for Zach Randolph when it looked like the 3-point line needed to be covered, the Grizzlies’ offense stagnated down the stretch in the worst way. Maybe it was Tony Allen and Jeff Green at the wings, maybe Marc Gasol was tired (Gasol played 40 minutes; no one else played more than 33), or maybe Portland just realized the game was still within reach. Whatever it was, the Grizzlies very nearly lost this game when Zach Randolph didn’t close out Al-Farouq Aminu and he drilled a 3-pointer right in Randolph’s face to put Portland up 1 with 12.5 seconds left.
After that, Courtney Lee bricked a 3-pointer but Randolph got the rebound, got blocked by Allen Crabbe, got his own Z-bound and laid it in with .6 seconds left on the clock. It was a great play, and exactly what you want from Zach Randolph, putting the team on his back and fighting through three guys to win the game, but a comfortable 10-point win would’ve been easier on everyone, crowd blood pressure included. A win is a win, but the Griz still have a lot of things to tighten up with this roster and with this team. The season is young. If Chalmers can play like that more often than not, this team is already looking better, but there is still growth and improvement ahead.
PS: I know I have readers in France because I talk to them on Twitter from time to time; I hope you all are safe and my thoughts are with you this weekend. Prayers up, as they say.
