Tag: Stephen Curry

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies Annihilate Warriors

Santi Aldama goes to the basket against the Golden State Warriors on December 19, 2024. (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Memphis Grizzlies made a statement with their 51-point win over the Golden State Warriors, Thursday night, marking the largest margin of victory in the NBA this season. The impressive win showcased the Grizzlies’ dominance, with a final score of 144-93.

Steve Kerr described the Warriors’ 51-point loss to the Grizzlies as a “humbling night.” He credited the Grizzlies’ strong performance, particularly their defense, and acknowledged that the Warriors have significant work to do to improve.

“Humbling means what it means, right — you lose by 51 [points] that’s humbling,” Kerr answered on how the night was humbling. “What I know about this team, is that this is the second time we’ve been blown out. We got blown out in Cleveland [by the Cavaliers] early in the season. 

Memphis imposed their will from the start, jumping out to an 8-0 start and establishing a commanding 22-point advantage by the end of the first quarter. They continued to pull away, leading by 31 at halftime and 50 after three quarters. The Grizzlies’ largest lead of the night was 57 points in the fourth quarter, capping off their fifth wire-to-wire victory of the season.

Memphis reserves outperformed the Warriors’ second unit 82-65, securing a season-high in bench points and proving superior in the showdown between the league’s top two scoring benches. 

Santi Aldama delivered a standout performance, leading Memphis with a 21 points and 14 rebounds off the bench. This marked his eighth double-double of the season. Aldama also matched his season high for 3-pointers, going 5-10 from beyond the arc. His impressive play is making a strong case for him as the sixth-man of the year, showcasing his valuable contributions off the bench.

“I mean, when you are talking about the depth, I think it is our attention to detail,” Aldama on the bench production. 

“We’ve talked about it, like [we all] are just trying to find ways to keep contributing with the starters. They do such a great job, and in a game like this, it’s important because that’s the difference between winning the game by a lot or maybe giving them some life. With a team like this, they’re obviously super talented, so you can’t let them have a sense that they can come back into game.”

Aldama expressed his excitement about being up 50 points on home court, using a metaphor to describe the team’s killer instinct. He emphasized their desire to dominate opponents consistently, acknowledging that while it may not always be possible, they aim to make a statement and show their strength.

It’s only one win but it pushed Memphis to 19-9 on the season and to it’s eighth-straight home victory.

The Grizzlies connected on a franchise-record 27 3-pointers, and defensively took the Warriors’ lunch money. 

Memphis’ defense held Stephen Curry to just two points (2-2 FT) in 24 minutes of play. He went 0-7 from the field. He had a tough night, attempting the most field goals ever in his 16-year career without making a single shot, while playing 24 minutes. Curry also had a -41 in +/-, just brutal. 

Draymond Green’s stats were even worse. He had zero points, zero rebounds, zero assists with four turnovers and four personal fouls. Green ended with a -42 in +/-. 

Up Next

The Grizzlies are heading to Atlanta to face off against the 14-14 Hawks on Saturday, December 21. The game is set to tip off at 6:30 pm CT at the State Farm Arena.

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Beyond the Arc Sports Uncategorized

Grizzlies Down Warriors, 133-119

Jaren Jackson, Jr. drives to the basket on Saturday, March 18, 2023 against the Golden State Warriors (Credit: Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)

On the second night of a back-to-back, the Memphis Grizzlies were back at home against their most hated rival, the Golden State Warriors. 

The Grizzlies controlled the game in the first half, but Golden State came roaring back and put up 41 points in the third quarter to cut the lead to single digits. However, Memphis held the Warriors to 19 points on 7-of-21 shooting (1-8 3P) in the fourth period, and scored 29 points of their own to beat the Warriors 133-119. 

The Grizzlies have won five of their last six games, and have a best-in-the-NBA home winning percentage (.853) after improving to 29-5 at FedExForum this season. Memphis also tied its season high with its eighth consecutive home victory.

With their eleventh consecutive road loss, Golden State dropped back to 7-29 on the road this season. The Warriors have not won a road game since January 27th. 

The Block Panther Game 

Jaren Jackson Jr. led the Grizzlies, tying his season high with 31 points by going 12-of-22 from the field, with seven boards, four blocks, and three assists. 

Jackson Jr. has scored 25+ points in three consecutive games, the longest such streak of his career.

“My teammates are requiring a lot out of me offensively” Jackson, Jr. said on balancing offensive assertiveness and efficiency. “They want me to view the mismatches and find different opportunities for me to score, especially when I have someone smaller than me, but even when I have somebody slower. I have to do both.”

Jackson, Jr. went on to say, “So, when I’m getting that many attempts, especially in the right spots, it’s really just about the spots I’m getting. If I can get in a better spot, higher chances of going in rather than trying to force it when doubles come, trying to find guys to review the double team rather than just go head-to-head without looking. You know, it all helps.”

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said,  “I thought Jaren [Jackson Jr.] played a great game tonight. I thought he was aggressive, he was scoring in the lane, knocked down a few threes as well, but he had it going tonight for sure.” 

Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins spoke about Jackson Jr’s improved offensive game. “It’s been a huge growth area for him, for us as a team, for me,” Jenkins said. “It’s all the above. It’s the work he’s been putting in when it comes to post-ISO situations, the reads he’s making off of drives, whether that’s on a go-and-catch, coming off a pick-and-roll situation.” 

“I think what it really comes down to is finding the times to assert himself when it’s in the flow of offense and when we make a call for you, Jenkins added. “He’s finding a lot of success. He’s making angles, he’s making efficient moves to get to the rim. Tonight, a great example of kick-outs and dump-offs for three assists.”

Jenkins concluded, “Huge growth area for him. Just being efficient, as you said, but it’s just within the flow of the offense and when we make play calls for him. Just allowing him to be the decision maker. We know what he does defensively, but when he can give you that production inside out, from the free throw line, some playmaking on top of that, that’s huge for us.”

Jackson Jr. knows he’s a walking mismatch every game. “I feel like that every night, but you have to control it,” said the 23-year-old. “You have to do it in the right form, and if you if you just think like that and you just start jacking it, it just doesn’t look as good. I feel like that, but I’m really just reading how the games go.”

The All-Defensive forward has what it takes to be elite both offensively and defensively, but he has to have balance. “You just got to have the legs to be able to do both,” the All-Star big man said after the game. “So a lot of endurance is needed for that kind of activity. I’m not just doing one thing. So, it’s just about getting enough rest and having your legs. That helps because I know I have enough strength to get it done.”

The Dillon Brooks Effect 

Stephen Curry was limited to 16 points on 5-of-15 shooting, snapping a 17-game streak of scoring 20+ points. Curry was too not thrilled about being asked about his matchup against Brooks. Curry said, “We played the whole Memphis Grizzlies, not just him. That’s my thoughts.”

After the game, Brooks spoke about his plan for guarding Curry. He said, “Just being obsessed about him. Just watching film. Just understanding his whole game, the whole game plan. I love playing against him. He’s a competitor. I don’t think he likes the way I operate, but it’s working, so he’s going to have to figure out how to score on me. But, like I told everybody else, with a guy like him, he’s been doing it for so many years, seen so many defenses, so many coverages that you got to finally do something different. His desire to be the greatest shooter in the NBA, on this Earth, is the same desire that I want to guard him every single night.”

Jenkins had one word to describe Brooks after the game. “Spirited,”said Jenkins. “He’s got great spirit. He’s got great energy. I always say he’s an ultimate competitor. He embodies so many things you want out of a basketball player every single night, just how he lays it on the line. He leads by example, leads on the floor, leads off the floor with his voice. I could probably elaborate more, but you said, ‘How would I describe it?’ I can give you the one word: it’s very spirited.”

Jenkins also said he believes Brooks should be on the NBA All-Defensive team this season. He said, “The numbers don’t lie. The film doesn’t lie, so I think it’s a no-brainer that he should be an All-Defensive player.”

“This is elite level intensity, and he’s a master at it honestly,” Jackson, Jr. said of Brooks’ intensity. “Being able to have that level of intensity and still being able to lock in and have a calm approach to still get stuff done. You can’t just be erratic all the time, so there is a method to his madness for sure.”

Brooks added 18 points, shooting 7-of-10 from the field and 4-of-4 from 3-point range.

The Grizzlies need this version of Brooks going forward. 

Up Next

The second game of a four-game homestand continues when the Dallas Mavericks come to town on Monday night with possibly both Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic available. 

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Onward to the Past

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after. — Wallace Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

While many of you were at Beale Street Music Fest or at the movies or drinking yourselves silly with craft beer last Saturday night, I spent the evening watching “Nerd Prom,” otherwise known as the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Yes, I know, I need to get out more.

The WHCD is an incestuous affair, one in which the Beltway elite dress up and endure polite jabs from the president, and then, after the the leader of the free world’s remarks, get skewered more forcefully by a comedian. This year’s dinner went pretty much true to form, except that comedian Larry Wilmore of The Nightly Show had the bad fortune to follow a president who had funnier material and a better stage presence.

Obama took shots at Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Reince Priebus, Ted Cruz, and, of course, Donald Trump. He was in rare form, obviously feeling some relief that this would be the last such dinner he would ever have to attend. “Next year at this time,” he said, “someone else will be standing here in this very spot, and it’s anyone’s guess who she will be.” Ow.

The president even poked fun at himself in a video in which he received “advice” on retirement from former Speaker John Boehner, who offered Obama a cigarette and suggested that having a beer in the morning wasn’t the worst idea ever. Which is true.

At the end of his speech, when Obama literally dropped the mic, I thought about how much I’ll miss having a president with a sense of humor and an ability to be self-deferential, a national leader who can be joyful and use Snapchat and charm children and shoot hoops with Stephen Curry — and bear with grace and humor the most vitriolic and coordinated attacks on a president’s character in my memory.

I can’t imagine Donald Trump, for instance, ever making fun of himself. To do so requires genuine self-confidence, not the insecure macho bluster that is Trump’s stock in trade. As we trundle toward what now appears inevitable — a presidential contest between Trump and Hillary Clinton — I cannot help but feel the country is taking a step backward, with two candidates in their late 60s, neither of whom seems in touch with the nation’s current zeitgeist.

Even so, the choice between Trump and Clinton will be not a difficult one for me, nor will it be for the majority of Americans, if current polling is to be believed. In 2012, Obama beat Mitt Romney in an Electoral College landslide, and it’s unlikely many Democratic voters will switch to Trump in 2016. There simply aren’t enough angry, xenophobic white people to swing a national election to the GOP. Nor are there enough Democratic voters who “feel the Bern” of Sanders’ efforts to tackle the country’s increasingly troubling income disparity.

But there is an overlap there between Trump’s frustrated blue-collar followers and Sanders’ underpaid and over-leveraged young folks. The candidate who can reach both groups and show them their common interests — and their common enemies — will have a shot at creating genuine change. It’s not happening this year, but I get the sense that we are only waiting for this moment to arrive.