This was a pretty blah game and I have a cold, so I’m going to make this one reasonably brief:
1. Turnovers Bite Again: Turnovers have been a big story throughout preseason and turnover differential was a key to tonight’s last, as the Grizzlies turned the ball over 22 times to the Hawks’ 14. I haven’t gone back over the play chart, but my memory and game notes suggest two types of turnovers were most frequent tonight. There were a lot of lost-ball turnovers from dribbling in traffic. This problem will hopefully be alleviated in the regular season by certain players getting fewer minutes (I’m looking at you Mike Taylor) and others getting sharper (ditto O.J. Mayo). The other were bad pass turnovers, particularly in the halfcourt, particularly on forced entry feeds. The Grizzlies were the worst assist team in the league, by far, last season. They are trying to correct that, at least in spots, this preseason, but just aren’t very good at passing the ball right now.
