Tag: Will Barton

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies Fall Short Against Denver, 119-110

CREDIT: NBA.com

On Saturday night at the Pepsi Center in Denver, the Memphis Grizzlies couldn’t get over the hump after scoring just 11 points in the first quarter against the Nuggets. Denver pulled off the victory 119–110. 

The Nuggets improved to 22–9 on the season, while Memphis fell to 12–21. Denver has won eight of its last nine games. The Grizzlies have lost four straight to Denver, overall. 

The Nuggets were up by many as 23 points in the first half before the Grizzlies went on a rally to tighten the game. After scoring just 39 points in the first half, Memphis put up 71 points in the second, but it was not enough to overtake Denver.

NBA.com

Nikola Jokic

Nikola Jokic garnered his seventh triple-double of the season, with a season-high 31 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists, before fouling out of the game late in the final period.  Jokic now has 35 career triple-doubles.

Jokic wasn’t pleased about giving up a lot of points to the Grizzlies in the second half. “In the first quarter, they score 11 points and in the fourth, they score 42,” said Jokic. “It’s a huge difference. We have to be focused on closing the halves, closing the quarters, closing the games. The fourth quarter is the time our defense needs to be the best; it wasn’t tonight, but we won the game, which is the most important thing.”

Other Denver contributors included former University of Memphis standout, Will Barton, who put up 20 points, seven assists, six rebounds, plus two steals in 36 minutes of play. Mason Plumlee started in his first game of the season for the Nuggets and scored 15 points, with seven rebounds, in 20 minutes. Jamal Murray added 15 points, five rebounds, and five assists. 

Denver won the points in the paint battle, 66–58 (+8)

Jaren Jackson Jr. led Memphis with 20 points and four rebounds. Jackson discussed how the Grizzlies were able to get back in the game after being down by 23 points: “A lot of better ball movement and a lot of side-to-side play. When we trust our ball movement and trust our pick-and-rolls, we just have much more action with more rhythm, and everyone gets open looks.”

Jackson also discussed how it was to match up with Jokic. “He’s really strong  —  he’s really going to cause some problems,” Jackson added. “He’s a really good passer, too. It’s kind of pick your poison with him when he’s hitting the three-ball. You’ve got to make sure you take one thing away and I definitely didn’t do a good job of that tonight. I definitely could have been better. He’s a good player.”

De’Anthony Melton had 17 points and four rebounds off the bench. Ja Morant tallied 16 points and eight assists. Brandon Clarke added 15 points and five assists while going 6-of-8 from the field. 

Jonas Valanciunas scored 14 points and 10 rebounds in 24 minutes for his 17th double-double of the season. It’s his fourth game of the season with 14+ points, 10+ rebounds and two made three-pointers. 


Game Quotes
Grizzlies Head Coach Taylor Jenkins

On what went wrong:
“Obviously, it was a tough first quarter for us. We were not able to get a lot of shots to fall, both layups and threes, during the first quarter and a half. But, I love our resolve. Our guys were great at half-time and making a run to close out the second quarter. We cut it to three at one point in the third. It got back to seven in the 4th quarter and they made a run. So, for our guys to come in here and compete like that and come up short is obviously unfortunate. But, I’m proud of a lot of things we did tonight.”

On fatigue being a factor once the team came back:

“No, I think our guys were competing at a high level. They made the plays down the stretch, so credit to the Nuggets. They had some offensive rebounds that they came away with, and a couple late passes here and there. They also had some big-time shots, but I think our effort was great for 48 minutes.”

Up Next

The Grizzlies return home to host the Charlotte Hornets in the FedExForum on Sunday night. Tip-off is at 7 pm CST. 

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Sports Tiger Blue

Memphis Tiger Super Sophs

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Dedric Lawson is only the 10th Memphis men’s basketball player to score 1,000 points in his first two seasons as a Tiger. Making the achievement even more impressive, Lawson is only the sixth Tiger to join the 1,000-point club during his sophomore season (and still shy of his 20th birthday).
Larry Kuzniewski

Dedric Lawson

Win Wilfong played two seasons at Missouri before transferring to Memphis and scoring 1,203 points in two seasons. The great Larry Finch wasn’t eligible to play as a freshman (1969-70), and Penny Hardaway was academically ineligible for his freshman campaign (1990-91). Omar Sneed played two seasons in junior college before scoring his 1,000th point for Memphis in 1999.

So where does Lawson rank among the five other 1,000-point sophomores at the U of M?


6) Darius Washington (2004-06) — Washington will forever be remembered in these parts for missing a pair of free throws after time expired in the 2005 Conference USA championship game at FedExForum, shots that would have sent the Tigers to the NCAA tournament. (Having lost 14 previous games, that team didn’t deserve a bid.) D-Wash manned the point for a great 2005-06 team, one that won 33 games and made the first of four consecutive appearances for the program in the NCAA Sweet 16 (losing to UCLA in a regional final). Washington was a shoot-first playmaker who would be considerably higher on the Tiger career scoring chart had he stayed for a third (let alone fourth) season.
Larry Kuzniewski

Will Barton

5) Will Barton (2010-12) — Barton was named C-USA’s Player of the Year after the 2011-12 season, one in which he led the league in scoring (18.0 points per game). Few players as slender as Barton have been as productive in the paint. He was the rare college player who could score off-balance . . . consistently. A member of two NCAA tournament teams, Barton was part of 51 wins in his two seasons as a Tiger. Now a member of the Denver Nuggets, he’ll soon become just the ninth former Tiger to play in 300 NBA games.

4) Dedric Lawson (2015-17) — Lawson’s success as a college player is staggering when you consider he could well be a freshman this season, having graduated a year early from Hamilton High School so he could jump-start his Tiger career. His 34 career double-doubles already rank sixth in Memphis history. Through 60 games, Lawson has averaged 17.5 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. A leading contender for American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, Lawson is the only player on this list not to appear (yet) in the NCAA tournament.

3) Lorenzen Wright (1994-96) — Wright’s life ended tragically in 2010, after the center played in more NBA games (778) than any other former Tiger. But I remember most vividly the freshman rim-shaker, screaming up to the Pyramid cheap seats after another two-handed slam. The Tiger program had suffered a downer in 1993-94 following Penny Hardaway’s departure for the NBA.Wright was a college force from the first time he took the floor for coach Larry Finch. He led Memphis in both scoring and rebounding each of his two seasons, accumulating 31 double-doubles in 64 games while averaging 16.0 points and 10.3 rebounds. As a freshman, he helped Memphis to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.

2) Elliot Perry (1987-89) — One of two Tigers to score 2,000 career points, Perry led the Tigers in assists each of his four seasons and scoring three times. (Dwight Boyd was the top scorer during Perry’s freshman season of 1987-88.) With his goggles and knee-high socks, Perry would have been a crowd favorite for his presentation alone. But he proved to be an exceptional pace-setting point guard. Twice named first-team All-Metro Conference, Perry is second in career steals and fifth in career assists at Memphis.

1) Keith Lee (1981-83) — Lawson’s double-double total is impressive until you consider Lee had 37 by the end of his sophomore season, then had 37 more as a junior and senior. The four-time All-America scored 1,113 points as an under-classman, then 1,295 as an upper-classman, helping the Tigers reach the Sweet 16 four years in a row, including the 1985 Final Four. Over the last 32 years, no Memphis player has come within 100 points of Lee’s school scoring record (2,408 points) or within 100 rebounds of his rebounding mark (1,336). Over his first two seasons, Lee averaged 18.6 points and 10.9 rebounds per game.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Deflections: Weekend Recap, Playoff Race, Rudy Gay Trolling

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Mike Conley continued to assert himself over the weekend, leading the Grizzlies in scoring in both games.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • Mike Conley continued to assert himself over the weekend, leading the Grizzlies in scoring in both games.

Weekend Recap: The Grizzlies split weekend games against Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings — both two-point contests — to complete a 2-1 West Coast road trip. Given the franchise’s history along the Pacific that’s a good trip no matter the circumstances.

Each game was marked by a semi-controversial non-call at the rim and near the end of the game. In the Lakers game, it was Mike Conley driving in to tie and being smothered up by Dwight Howard. In the Kings game, it was Marc Gasol blocking DeMarcus Cousins’ drive. Did Howard get Conley with the body? Did Gasol get Cousins on the wrist instead of the hand? Even after a few in-game replays both non-calls looked inconclusive to me. So much of basketball officiating is about judgement calls and I thought both of those non-calls were, at minimum, defensible.

Of wider note, Mike Conley continued his recent scoring trend, notching 46 points on 18-33 shooting, leading the team in both games. As for his being featured late, we’ll get to that in just a minute.

On the other side of the ball, Marc Gasol continued to bolster his Defensive Player of the Year case. Against the Lakers, Gasol had eight defensive rebounds, three steals, and two blocks while helping hold Dwight Howard to 9 points on 3-7 shooting. In the second half, as the Grizzlies were overcoming poor early shooting to get back into the game, Gasol strung together a series of terrific defensive plays. Against the Kings, Gasol notched five blocks, with two coming in the final 20 seconds to seal the game: The first was on Cousins. On the second, Gasol swallowed up Marcus Thornton and snatched away his attempted game-winner at the buzzer.

On the downside, Zach Randolph struggled over the weekend, shooting 11-30 over two games and often struggling to finish shots over defenders in the paint. Randolph is averaging 13 points on 43% shooting over his past 10 games and seems to be creeping into the playoffs in distressingly similar form to his limited post-injury performance last spring.