Larry Kuzniewski
Mike Conley played a great first half last night before the Warriors completely overwhelmed the Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies lost to the league-leading Golden State Warriors on Friday night, 107-84, in their second consecutive blowout loss to a championship-contending team. I don’t think I have to run down how the game went: the Grizzlies came out playing tough but not executing well, and not making great decisions. Mike Conley was on fire early and did a number on Stephen Curry defensively, but without the play from Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph to back it up and establish the Grizzlies’ presence on the interior, the Grizzlies were quickly overmatched and outgunned.
The Warriors’ incomparable backcourt of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson combined for 66 points on 22 of 39 shooting, and the Warriors as a team went 16 of 31 from three-point range. The Grizzlies’ defense, good though it may be, just couldn’t keep up with that kind of barrage, not when their own offense was sorely lacking in outside shooting and the open shots they were able to create for themselves—mostly on the interior, where they count for one fewer point—weren’t falling.
The Warriors, the way they’re playing right now, are one of the best basketball teams I’ve seen play in person. Everything they do, whether it’s passing, shooting, defending, running sets, everything, they do at an elite level. They’re clearly the best team in the West and probably the best team in the league.
And that’s the whole problem that the Grizzlies have against these teams like the Cavaliers and Warriors right now: they’re just better. They’re playing their best basketball, and the Grizzlies are still stumbling around trying to find their way, or maybe coasting, or who even knows what the problem is anymore? There are tiers of teams right now. The first tier is Golden State, Cleveland, Atlanta, and probably San Antonio. The Grizzlies—despite having the third-best record in the league—don’t belong in that group by virtue of their uneven play.
That’s not to say that the Grizzlies are hopeless. They could very conceivably get to the playoffs, where every game matters again, and flip a switch and return to form, with the offense and defense both firing on all cylinders the way they were at the beginning of the year. It’s not hard to imagine that happening; we know they’re capable of playing like that, or at least they were. It’s entirely possible that they end up in a first round matchup with, well, anybody but San Antonio, and take care of business in five or six games while rounding into form to pummel whoever the second-round opponent is.
The problem is that there are only three weeks and nine games between here and there. They’ve been sleepwalking since before the All-Star break. There’s just no way to know what they’re going to look like—what type of intensity they’ll play with, how well they’ll execute—until the playoffs start. If last night is an indication of anything, it’s just proof that the Grizzlies have a long way to go before they’re in “playoff shape.”
But let’s talk specifics. Here are two things that are going wrong for the Grizzlies right now that are actually worth being concerned about, long-term.
Zach Randolph is not playing like Zach Randolph, and he hasn’t for a while. Last night against Golden State, Z-Bo had 3 rebounds and 10 points on 4-10 shooting in 27 minutes. This is the same Randolph who ripped off a string of 20-out-of-21 games worth of double doubles barely more than two months ago. He’s just not playing like himself right now; he’s not the physical interior threat he normally is, he’s not fighting for rebounding position, the Grizzlies are settling for the same old isolation sets for him that they always have… it’s just not good. I don’t know why that’s happening, and neither does anybody else. But Randolph’s decline, when paired with Gasol’s, is a huge reason the Grizzlies can’t beat anybody right now: it’s pretty much the only way they had to score anyway, and with Randolph a non-factor they really can’t keep up with jump shooting.
I’d like to assume that Randolph is just coasting to the playoffs, whether intentionally or not, and that he’ll be fine by the end of the year. Veteran guys have that habit. But if that’s not what it is, and there are some kind of issues, physical or otherwise, that are keeping him from playing his best, that’s a huge problem.
Larry Kuzniewski
Courtney Lee has regressed from not making shots to barely even taking them.
The second thing: Courtney Lee is a shooter/scorer who neither shoots nor scores. Lee started the season on a hot streak, and since then he hasn’t just returned to earth, but rather has fallen through the floor, through the bottom of the basement, and is now searchin for his shot somewhere deep within the mantle of the earth, on a mission somewhat like the movie The Core.
Without Lee hitting threes—because, let’s face it, nobody else is hitting any either, with the exception of Mike Conley, and Mike can’t do everything all the time—the Grizzlies are right back where they’ve always been every other year: pack the paint and shut down Gasol and Randolph, and there’s nowhere for them to go. Teams have been doing just that all spring now, and Lee, for his part, doesn’t appear to be shaking off the slump any time soon.
The worst part about Lee’s slump is that he’s progressed beyond taking shots and missing them, and now he’s got a hand injury of some kind and he isn’t even taking them anymore. Against Cleveland, he played fourteen full minutes before even attempting a field goal. Against Golden State, he was 1-6 in 22 minutes, which is better, but (obviously) still not good.
And it’s bad for chemistry. The players know the fact that Lee won’t shoot the ball is a problem—one or two off-the-record locker room grumbles confirmed that. Front office folks know it’s a problem, too. There doesn’t appear to be anything that anybody can do about it, short of hoping that Vince Carter somehow completes his return to his form from last season’s Mavericks team that almost knocked off the eventual-champion Spurs. And, much as I hate to say it, that doesn’t seem likely.
So, it’s not just me worrying about what’s going to happen—those two issues, Randolph and Lee, are concerning trends as the Grizzlies get ready for the postseason. If there’s no shooting to space the floor—and honestly, I’m just so, so tired of wondering when the Griz will finally acquire “a shooter” so they can make something approaching the league average number of threes—and if Zach Randolph isn’t able to fill that “garbage man” role because of some real reason, beyond “I don’t care until April”, they’ll be even farther away from that top tier of NBA teams.
Let’s be honest: Sunday night’s game in San Antonio against the surging Spurs is probably not going to go well, either, given the way the Grizzlies are playing right now. It’s more important that they look like they want to be there and that they play like they actually want to win than whatever the result ends up being. Lee has to take shots. Randolph has to get rebounds. Gasol has to be a little more assertive, or at least look less confused. Someone besides Mike Conley has to play like they’re worried about the outcome.
Without those things, this team just isn’t very good. Whether or not they’re really the 2nd best team in the West, as their record would indicate, they’re far better than they’ve been playing lately, and I, for one, would just like for them to put together a good game and prove that they’re still capable of hanging with these top-tier teams. Is that too much to ask?
