Tag: Marc Gasol

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Month to Month: The Grizzlies’ December Slide was Offensive.

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Mike Conleys trouble finishing at the rim was just one component of his December struggles.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Mike Conley’s trouble finishing at the rim was just one component of his December struggles.

The Grizzlies came out of November with the best record in the league and the best month — 12-1 — in franchise history. December was decidedly less kind, with the team stumbling to a 7-7 record on the month, including losing three of their past four games heading into tonight’s contest in Boston, and now clinging to fourth seed in the West instead of jockeying with the Thunder, Clippers, and Spurs for conference pole position.

What went wrong in December? It’s pretty easy to narrow down. The defense, led by Tony Allen’s shut-down work on the wing and Marc Gasol’s more subtle but perhaps more meaningful anchoring in the paint, has remained elite. After allowing only 96.2 points per 100 possessions in November, the team allowed only 96.6 in December, and currently ranks second in the NBA behind Indiana. (All specific stats per NBA.com. Team rankings per ESPN.com.) The rebounding has actually improved at both ends of the floor, with the team leading in the NBA in offensive rebound rate and tied for fifth overall.

Instead, the slide has been almost entirely the result of a massive regression — some might say correction — on the offensive end.

In November, the Grizzlies scored 105.6 points per 100 possessions and, at one point, were among the league’s top five offenses, drawing media attention across the league for their suddenly elite offense. In December, they’ve nose-dived to 96.3 points per 100 possessions and have now fallen to 20th in overall offensive efficiency, matching last season’s mediocrity.

Pretty much all the good things I wrote about the team’s offense here and here have reversed or declined since November gave way to December, as the offense has gotten slower and grown more stagnant — more reliant on isolation plays from top scorers Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph and on mid-range jumpers from nearly everyone.

The early dynamism — with offensive improvement built on more three-pointers, more free-throws, and a faster pace rather that simply better overall shooting — has mostly disappeared.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Postgame Notebook: Sixers 99, Grizzlies 89 — Don’t Call it a Comeback. No, Really.

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

The Lead:

Marc Gasols triple-double flirtation was the highlight of a lackluster team performance.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Marc Gasol’s triple-double flirtation was the highlight of a lackluster team performance.

The Grizzlies finally found the intensity level they needed Wednesday night against the Sixers, but they found it down 88-73 and with under 8 minutes left in the game, a confluence of time and score in which effort would have to be married with near-perfect execution to complete a comeback, and near-perfect execution was not there.

Mike Conley and Zach Randolph, who had been lackluster or worse all night, led a 9-2 Griz run, scoring or assisting on every point, while the team defense found the right mix of urgency and cohesion, holding the Sixers without a field goal for more than four minutes in the middle of the quarter.

A three-point play and subsequent steal from Randolph lead to a fastbreak that would have cut the Sixers lead down to 6 with five-and-a-half-minutes to play, but Tony Allen killed the momentum with a familiar but ill-timed missed lay-up, the first of a string of miscues that sapped the Grizzlies’ momentum: A forced post feed to Randolph that was picked off. Wayne Ellington missing his first three-point attempt in his 25th minute. Consecutive layup attempts (from Ellington and Randolph) blocked by Sixers center Spencer Hawes. And then a Marc Gasol pass sailing through Allen’s hands.

When Sixers swingman Dorell Wright hit a three-pointer with Allen draped over him on the next trip down, the Sixers were back up by 11 with about three minutes left and hope was pretty much lost.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Catalonian Catalyst: Marc Gasol’s passing has helped transform the Griz offense — and it’s fun too!

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Last Friday, after Marc Gasol dished out 8 assists in a 106-98 home win over the Los Angeles Lakers — the eighth time in 11 games this season in which he’d had at least 5 assists; last season he did this 14 times in 65 games — I asked head coach Lionel Hollins about Gasol’s playmaking this season.

Marc Gasol, plotting another assist against the Lakers last week.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Marc Gasol, plotting another assist against the Lakers last week.

Hollins asserted that it was mostly a matter of Gasol’s teammates making more shots this season. This wasn’t a particularly surprising answer. Hollins has an honorable tendency to reflect individual praise into a team context. But as terrific a head coaching job as Hollins has done, on this subject I have to take issue.

The Grizzlies offense this season has improved dramatically, from 21st in points scored per possession up to 5th, per ESPN.com, but it isn’t because they’re simply making more shots. The team’s overall shooting percentage has actually declined slightly, from .447 to .446. Instead of making more shots, the team has improved offensively by taking better shots:

Grizzlies Shot Distribution, 2011-2012
Paint: 52.5%
Mid-Range: 31.8%
Three-Pointers: 15.7%

Grizzlies Shot Distribution, 2012-2013
Paint: 55.7%
Mid-Range: 25.7%
Three-Pointers: 18.7%
— NBA.com

Essentially the Grizzlies have cut down on mid-ranger jumpers — the game’s lowest-efficiency shot, on average — while replacing them with more interior attempts and more three-pointers. (The team actually is shooting better from long-range, but percentages are actually down a little in the paint.) The increase in interior attempts also seems to be reflected in an increase in free-throw attempts, up from 22.8 a game last season to 24.3 a game so far this season. On a related note, after being among the league’s worst assist teams for the past five seasons, the Grizzlies have inched toward league average (currently 19th in assist ratio).

The causal relationships among all of these offensive factors are unclear, but Marc Gasol’s emergence as an elite playmaker at the center position seems to have a lot to do with this.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Postgame Notebook: Grizzlies 105, Knicks 95 — Homecoming in “We Don’t Bluff” City

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

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The Lead:

Three games against elite NBA teams. Three chances for the Grizzlies’ traditional post-oriented style to submit to trendier small-ball alignments. Three double-digit wins, the last two on national television. And after a weird, wooly, entertaining, and commanding win over the Knicks, the Grizzlies left the floor tonight with, for the first time in franchise history, the best record in the entire NBA.

What does it mean to be atop league-wide standings?

“Now what,” Lionel Hollins asked after the game. “Can we hold onto it tomorrow night? We’re going to get in [to Charlotte] at four in the morning. Can we rev it up … and get a win tomorrow night?”

The win over the previously unbeaten Knicks completed what has to be the best three-game regular-season stretch in franchise history.

“If we don’t win tomorrow, the game tonight doesn’t mean anything,” Marc Gasol said.

But don’t tell that to fans. The ones that showed up with homemade “I Don’t Bluff” T-shirts in honor of Randolph’s post-game comments about his skirmish with Thunder center Kendrick Perkins Wednesday night. Or the ones with who showed up adorned with Randolph’s less considered retort to Perkins: “I’ll Beat Yo Ass.”

Big-man corner in the locker room — Randolph, Marc Gasol, and Marreese Speights — was laughing about the shirts after the game, but Gasol latched onto the more family friendly variation. “’We Don’t Bluff City,’ that’s good,” Gasol said, blessing as slogan-worthy a rallying cry that might become the new “Grit and Grind.”

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Road Recap: Grizzlies 108, Bucks 90

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Jerryd Bayless has rebounded from his pre-season shooting struggles.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Jerryd Bayless has rebounded from his pre-season shooting struggles.

The Grizzlies improved to 3-1 on the season with a third consecutive commanding win over a team with legitimate playoff aspirations. Marc Gasol continued his versatile, efficient excellence (14 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists on only 8 field-goal attempts). Zach Randolph continued to dominate on the boards (a game-high 13; he leads the league with a 15.3 average). Rudy Gay continued to find lots of shots (20) without quite connecting on enough of them (7).

But the real story last night was the performance of the Grizzlies’ bench. Marreese Speights went off for 18 points and 9 rebounds in only 22 minutes, while the perimeter trio of Jerryd Bayless, Wayne Ellington, and Quincy Pondexter combined to shoot 6-9 from long-range. Bayless has hit a three-pointer in every game so far (50% overall), which is encouraging after his poor shooting in the preseason. Assuming Pondexter’s development into a viable three-point shooter was one of the reasons I projected the Grizzlies to be a slightly better overall three-point shooting team even after losing O.J. Mayo, and the early returns are good, as he’s 5-9 from long-range through four games. Ellington hasn’t quite found his groove yet (3-9), but his sufficient defense and overall strong effort level has made him a general plus as a deep reserve.

The cherry on top of this one was three uneventful garbage-time debut minutes for rookie Tony Wroten Jr.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Game 2 Preview: Grizzlies at Warriors

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The Grizzlies will try to avoid coming home 0-2 when they face the Golden State Warriors in Oakland tonight (9:30 p.m. tip).

After dealing with injury problems in the preseason, the Warriors were able to start their optimal lineup in their own opener, and squeaked out an 87-85 win over the Phoenix Suns despite getting only 18 minutes from starting center Andrew Bogut (who was playing his first game since breaking his ankle in January) and suffering a combined 4-30 shooting performance from incumbent top scorers Stephen Curry and David Lee.

Three quick things to look for tonight:

1. Attack Lee and Landry: With Bogut limited and rookies Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green rounding out the frontcourt rotation, forwards David Lee and Carl Landry played 62 of 96 minutes up front for the Warriors in their first game. Both are pretty bad defenders and together? Let’s just say that Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, and even Marreese Speights should all be able to have success when checked by either Lee or Landry. The Grizzlies post players have a chance to go large tonight.