1. Griz Win! Griz Win!:It seems silly to consider the second game in an 82-game schedule a “must win,” but tonight’s game felt that way for the Grizzlies since it was sandwiched between a demoralizing opening-night loss and rough five-game West Coast road trip. And it was a good win — the heightened energy level was palpable from the very beginning and the execution improved over the course of 48 minutes.
The Grizzlies had two big problems tonight — turnovers and defending Chris Bosh — and improved in these areas over the course of the game. The Grizzlies had 5 turnovers in the first 5 minutes, and 12 in the ensuing 43 minutes. The early turnovers were a bad product of good things, though — over-aggression and over-passing as a result of trying perhaps too hard to play team basketball. The Grizzlies gave up 25 points to Bosh in the first half. “Only” 12 in the second.
And most promising was how the team responded to late adversity. Going down 8 — their largest deficit of the game — two minutes into the 4th quarter, the team called a timeout, and then came back to outscore Toronto 35-19 over the final 10 minutes.
