Bulls – Memphis Flyer

The Lead: This one fit the pre-game profile: A hard-fought, low-scoring slugfest between two elite defensive teams with middle-of-the-pack offenses.

LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
Man of the Match: Mike Conley

The Grizzlies haven’t allowed an opponent to top 100 points since their opening-night loss to the Los Angeles Clippers and the 71 they allowed the Bulls tonight is a season low for a Grizzlies opponent.

For the Grizzlies, some of their offensive struggles — 19 turnovers, 38 shooting — were familiar from last week’s losing streak, but when asked how much of that was a continuation of recent problems, Lionel Hollins answered “None of it.”

Hollins instead credited the Bulls defense, and I think I agree. So, while recent offense trends are concerning, I’m giving the team a pass on this one.

“I don’t know what fans think, but for a coach this was a good basketball game,” Hollins said. “A good, hard-fought game from both sides.”

The Grizzlies used a much-needed bench boost to overcome a terrible offensive start and take a small lead into the half. In the second half, Mike Conley’s playmaking (10 points and 4 assists) and Zach Randolph’s rebounding (9 of his game-high 15) helped the Grizzlies maintain control.

Man of the Match: One potentially decisive trend that went the right way for the Grizzlies in this one was the play of Mike Conley, whose turnovers tended to correlate with team success this season. Conley had only 2 turnovers against the Bulls, while scoring a game-high 17 points on 6-12 shooting and quietly dominating his match-up with Bulls point guard Kirk Hinrich.

Joakim Noah

The Grizzlies return home tonight to face a Chicago Bulls team that’s held up pretty well in the absence of injured star Derrick Rose, going 8-3 over their past 11 games to get to 13-9 overall, good enough for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

The past week has been a rough one for me in terms of trying to cover the Grizzlies, but with the team back in town and my year-end work in the areas not over but nearing completion, hopefully today can be the start to a return to consistent blogging here.

In that vein, three thoughts on tonight’s game, from which I’ll be tweeting and blogging tonight.

1. Which Grizzlies Team Will We See?: The Grizzlies got back on track in the second half against Utah Saturday night, outscoring the Jazz 55-32 to snap a three-game losing streak and regain the energy and style of play that had been missing for much of the preceding three-game losing streak.

What went wrong in the losing streak? There were lots of issues, but here are a few indicators of overall breakdown:

Style of play: The Grizzlies were gave up more offensive rebounds than they got in two of the three losses and won the turnover battle only once. Against the Jazz, they won on the offensive boards 18-7 and were -3 on turnover differential. That’s Grizzlies basketball.

Mike Conley’s funk: In three losses, Conley registered 13 assists to 15 turnovers, which is wildly out of character. There was correction against the Jazz, with 8 assists and 2 turns.

Bad bench shooting: Jerryd Bayless was 2-12 in the losses. Quincy Pondexter and Wayne Ellington were a combined 0-4 against the Suns, with Pondexter not even getting a shot up in 20 minutes in the home loss to Atlanta. Ellington has generally been a little more effective of late, but Bayless’ lack of offense (2-7 against the Jazz) continues to be a big concern.