Tag: Trailblazers

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies Iced Out by Trailblazers 

(Credit: Joe Murphy/NBAE for Getty Images)

It has been a frosty few days here in the Bluff City, and it seems the Grizzlies were not immune. After amassing as much as a 12-point lead, the Grizzlies were iced out by the Portland Trailblazers in the final frame, and ultimately lost the game 122-112. It was just the fourth loss for Memphis on the home court this season. 

Let’s get into it.  

This had trap game written all over it. The Blazers were slogging through an 8-game road losing streak and were extra motivated to snap it, and the Grizzlies perhaps feeling complacent by their dominance at home let a double-digit lead slip away.  

And we should give Damian Lillard his flowers for leading his team to victory – 42 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists – that’s Dame Time. Portland also made 26 of their 27 free throw attempts and turned 13 Memphis turnovers into 28 points.  

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Grizzlies. There were standout performances by Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr., Desmond Bane getting back into a shooting groove, and the debut of Danny Green. 

By The Numbers: 

Ja Morant led the team in scoring with 32 points, 9 rebounds, and 12 assists.  

Jaren Jackson Jr. finished with 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 blocks.  

Desmond Bane closed out with 17 points, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.

Santi Aldama led the bench with 10 points and 2 rebounds. 

And Danny Green, in his Grizzlies debut, put up 3 points, 4 rebounds, and 1 steal in just under 10 minutes on the floor.  

Who Got Next? 

No rest for the weary: The Grizzlies hit the road and will be facing off against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Tip-off is 6:30 PM CST. 

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Postgame Notebook: Grizzlies 91, Blazers 85 — Hollins Goes Small, Comes Up Big

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Mike Conley and the Griz finally found a groove in the second half.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Mike Conley and the Griz finally found a groove in the second half.

The Lead: After getting poor combined play from three young frontcourt players elevated by the absence of Zach Randolph and Darrell Arthur, seeing his team look sluggish and out of sync on both ends of the floor, and falling down by as many as 17 points in the third quarter, Lionel Hollins went small, bringing Tayshaun Prince back into the game for Ed Davis late in the third quarter.

At that point, the Grizzlies were down 11 points and Marc Gasol and Mike Conley were playing well but couldn’t find anyone to join them. Jerryd Bayless and Quincy Pondexter had just missed consecutive wide-open jumpers that would have cut the deficit to single digits. Nothing was working. But against the Blazers reserves, with combo forward Victor Claver at power forward, going small generated energy in the form of a furious 10-1 closing run.

Hollins stayed small throughout the fourth, even when the Blazers brought their starters back in, and the Grizzlies ended up closing the game on a 36-19 run over the final 15 minutes with Prince joining Marc Gasol up front, Mike Conley and Bayless manning the backcourt, and Pondexter and Tony Allen splitting up small forward minutes.

Prince put on a clinic for much of the game in the art of missing wide-open mid-range jumpers — when one finally dropped, he raised his endless arms to the sky in relief — but his ability to hold his own defensively and on the boards even after the Blazers brought back burly starter J.J. Hickson was a quiet key that allowed Gasol, Bayless, and Conley to make a series of game-saving plays.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Game 59 Preview — Grizzlies vs. Trailblazers

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Ed Davis is a likely start against Portland tonight.

The Grizzlies return home tonight to face the Portland Trailblazers in only the second meeting so far this season between these teams. The Grizzlies lost the first meeting, 86-84, in Memphis back on January 4th. Zach Randolph missed that game, as he’s likely to miss this one. Mike Conley scored only 6 points on 2-8 shooting and was outplayed by looming Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard, something of which the Grizzlies don’t need a repeat. But the biggest difference in the game was at the three-point line, where the Grizzlies actually shot a slightly higher percentage but the Blazers had 22 (!) more attempts.

I’m eschewing the usually three-part preview for this one, partly due to time constraints and partly because there’s one thing in particular I’m most interested in tonight:

Opportunity for Ed Davis?: With Zach Randolph and Darrell Arthur both looking doubtful, this means many more minutes and a likely start for Ed Davis, who’s coming off a double-double against Orlando.

Davis’ playing time has been pretty erratic since coming over as the primary long-term asset in the Rudy Gay trade. Though he’d been averaging more than 30 minutes a game for the Raptors over the prior month, Davis landed on a team with a deep, talented frontcourt rotation already in place, has seemed to struggle at times getting acclimated to the new system, and has had to earn the confidence of a coach more persuaded by his practice showing (and, apparently, his size) than his Toronto production.

The results, so far, have been mixed. Averaging only 11 minutes a game for the Grizzlies, Davis has shot 65% from the floor with a block rate that would rank third in the NBA over the full season. His free-throw shooting has been an unspeakable 39%. (He’s north of 60% on his career.) As a team, the Grizzlies have been a little better offensively with Davis on the floor and a little worse defensively. And you can put a “small sample size” caveat on all of it.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Postgame Notebook: Trailblazers 86, Grizzlies 84 — Z-Bo and 4th Quarter O Both a No-Go

I’m making this short because, like everyone else, I have phony trades to concoct and most of you would rather read that than get into the weeds of an increasingly familiar loss.

The Lead: Playing without Zach Randolph (“flu-like symptoms”), the Grizzlies were plagued by poor defensive rebounding and turnovers in the first half and a cratering offense in the second half, failing to build a lead on the Blazers — their biggest: 8 — that the team’s typically woeful fourth-quarter offensive could withstand.

And oh, those woes: The Grizzlies managed only 12 fourth-quarter points in a two-point loss. Mike Conley had a great chance to take the lead in the final seconds at the end of a chaotic possession: Marc Gasol rumbled to the sideline to track down a Rudy Gay miss and go the ball to Conley at the top of the key, who was guarded by 6’7” small forward Nicholas Batum. Conley drove right, got by Batum, leaned in and bounced out to create space, and got to the rim — but couldn’t finish. A Lamarcus Aldridge free-throw and a missed desperation Rudy Gay heave later, and the Grizzlies had their fourth loss in their past six games.

Man of the Match: In Randolph’s absence, Marreese Speights got the start and did a darn good Z-Bo impression, scoring 22 points on 7-15 shooting and grabbing 13 rebounds — including 7 on the offensive end — in 27 minutes. Speights had 18 and 10 in the second half alone, keeping the team afloat as the perimeter starters were combining to shoot 1-17 (no typo).