Larry Kuzniewski
The Grizzlies held on to win last night. It wasn’t pretty, but Known Kobe-Stopper Tony Allen played a big role on both sides of the ball.
Udrih had sixteen,
A new dawning of the bench,
Koufos had fourteen.
A brilliant hot fire,
The heat of a thousand suns—
Courtney Lee this year.
What is usage rate?
Vince Carter cares not for it;
Vince Carter still will shoot.
Weep for young Adams,
Weep for Jarnell, for Tayshaun:
DNP-CD.
Q played two minutes,
Did not talk to media.
Clearly frustrated.
Jon Leuer played some,
But nothing really happened,
This is a haiku.
Kobe has missed more
Than anyone else has missed
Because he is old.
The Grizzlies hung on to close out the Lakers last night 107–102 in a game that ended up being much closer than anyone thought it should have been. The Grizzlies’ starting guards (Mike Conley, who had 23, and Courtney Lee, who had 15) continued their run of good play, but the big men struggled to get anything done against the Lakers’ frontcourt of Jordan Hill and Carlos “Bigger Jerryd Bayless” Boozer.
The best thing that happened last night was with the Grizzlies’ reserves, who have been the topic of much consternation as of late. Beno Udrih had sixteen points, and for the first time really looked comfortable running the offense (and by running the offense I mostly mean shooting the ball—his usage rate was 33.7%, meaning he “used” a little over a third of the Grizzlies’ possessions while he was on the floor. He was scoring, so that’s not that big of a deal, but it does highlight Udrih’s emphasis on scoring over, say, passing and/or defense.) He really struggled in the first four or five games, but he’s coming along, and I think that when Nick Calathes returns, Udrih will still get some play in two-point-guard lineups. (Dave Joerger said as much in the postgame presser when I asked him about whether he’s going to start experimenting with the bench rotations.)
Overall, it was a win despite how the Grizzlies played, but that’s still a win.
Tweet of the Night
Something something Vince Carter (who was 2–4 last night, but hit some big shots at important moments, momentum-wise):
Vince Carter, closely guarded: “Need somebody to shoot? I will! Can I shoot yet? Hey, guys I’ll shoot it if you need me to. Hey, I’m open!”
— Blues City Joe (@BluesCityJoe) November 12, 2014
Up Next
The opponents get tougher ahead: the resurgent Kings are in town Thursday night, and (skipping over a game against the Pistons on Saturday, because who knows what that will be) the Houston Rockets are in town on Monday. Next Wednesday is a road game in Toronto. The struggles that the Grizzlies have faced may make these games tougher than they need to be. Hopefully the home cooking and the time to actually practice will help iron out some of the kinks we’ve seen so far.
