Larry Kuzniewski
Last night the Grizzlies stopped a six game losing streak by steamrolling the hapless Chicago Bulls, 108-92. However bad the Grizzlies may be right now—however hard it is for them to generate offense and pull the same direction in this depleted state—they didn’t have any trouble dispatching the Bulls, who weren’t communicating well, who weren’t making effort plays, and who just generally seemed disinterested in the game. The Bulls looked like a team who finally realized they don’t have anything left to fight for this year, while the Grizzlies faced a must-win scenario after failing to capitalize on “winnable” games against Denver and Orlando and blowing a lead against Toronto.
With the win, the Grizzlies’ hopes of making the playoffs and keeping their draft pick are still alive. A loss last night would’ve made things pretty dire headed into the last four games of the regular season, and the situation is still serious. But at 42 wins, and Utah losing to the Spurs, the Griz are still in fifth place, three games up on the 8th-place Jazz and 3.5 up on the 9th-place Rockets. Portland beat the Kings last night, so loss would’ve dropped the Grizzlies to 6th.
It’s worth paying attention to the standings every night from here on out. The Grizzlies’ upcoming game at Dallas is now really important, and if Houston starts winning games, could serve as an elimination game for the Mavericks by the time the Griz get there. Can the discombobulated Grizzlies take out Rick Carlisle and Dirk Nowitzki when it matters? I guess we’ll save that for Friday.
Larry Kuzniewski
Maybe the canonical Z-Bo Mean Mug.
The real story on the court last was that Zach Randolph demolished everything in his path. With so much on the line, Z-Bo went to work last night, finishing the game with 27 points and 10 rebounds on 10 of 19 shooting. He started off well with rookie Bobby Portis guarding (“guarding”) him—he said after the game that being matched up against the rookie got him going, and it was apparent to everyone in the arena that Randolph was relishing the opportunity to welcome another young man to a life of pain. After that, Randolph systematically picked apart Pau Gasol the rest of the night. Marc Gasol was in the building last night—he sat in the team’s box for most of the game, and was shown on the big screen at one point. One has to think that Marc took no small amount of pleasure in watching his older brother get demolished by his Other Brother.
With everything on the line last night, and a win desperately needed (Dave Joerger would say later in the postgame presser that he didn’t know how long the losing streak was, just that they neded a win, but Z-Bo was very upfront about the fact that a six game losing streak bothered him), Randolph put the team on his back and carried the scoring load against a Bulls defense that, even when they doubled him, wasn’t really doing much to slow him up. Each one of these little Z-Bo games is a pearl, and we’ve been stringing them together this season, even in the midst of all the garbage.
A more unexpected turn was Lance Stephenson, who didn’t play at all. He’s been struggling lately. Defenses know well enough by now that he’s going to try to drive to the rim, and when he gets the ball early in the shot clock sometimes he gets tunnel vision, knowing he’s the primary option to score, and he just doesn’t do anything but drive into the teeth of the defense and turn the ball over. It’s been a tough couple of games for Lance. So last night, when the Grizzlies were in a rhythm without him, Joerger rode the matchups that were working and left Lance on the bench.
I can’t imagine Stephenson was too happy about getting a DNP-CD in a critical game, but I also don’t get a sense that it caused a problem. Lance has been really professional his whole time in Memphis so far, has already guaranteed that he’ll get a contract from somebody this summer, if not the Grizzlies, and will get a chance to be Playoff Lance soon enough if things go the Grizzlies’ way.
There’s one four man group I need to call attention to, though. Xavier Munford, Vince Carter, JaMychal Green, and Jarell Martin have been killing opponents lately. In the Toronto game, with Lance at small forward, they were responsible for building the Grizzlies’ big lead more than once (the lead that disappeared as soon as they were all subbed out of the game). Last night, they were big, too, with Matt Barnes as the 5th guy. Something about the playmaking of Munford and Carter coupled with the bouncy high-energy athleticism of Green and Martin makes this a really compelling group to watch—especially when Green and Martin pull off an unexpected dunk and rev the motorcycle as they run back down the court. Vince looks at them like a proud uncle. It’s great.
Overall, it was a good night in a stretch of season that has had almost no good nights. The Grizzlies came out on their home court and smashed somebody they needed to smash. It was finally a game where the Grizzlies’ sheer effort was enough to get it done, and that’s the kind of game they needed to get the win.
Larry Kuzniewski
Xavier Munford
Tweet of the Night
March 2 feels like a lifetime ago.
Tonight the @memgrizz held a 20+ point lead for the first time since March 2 vs Sacramento.
— Ross Wooden (@RossWooden) April 6, 2016
Up Next
Friday night the Grizzlies are in Dallas to play the Mavericks. Saturday night they’re at home against the Giant Spinning Buzzsaw Of Basketball Death Golden State Warriors. After that, they’re on the road Tuesday night at the Clippers and Wednesday night at Golden State again, and that’s all she wrote on the regular season.
The Dallas game is critical. They can make the playoffs if they lose, but they really need to win it to be safe. Beyond that, any potential win is a pipe dream bonus. It’s going to be an important week of score-watching to see what everyone else in the bottom half of the West playoffs is doing, too. Portland, Utah, Dallas, and Houston all have big games.
