Well another home game and another loss that could have been very different. It seems that the Grizzlies have trouble keeping thier concentration the whole game in these tough losses. Golden St also simply looked in better shape than the Grizzlies.
The problems were the same as usual for the Grizzlies. Pathetic interior defense and poor rebounding. Golden St scored over 60 pts in the paint tonight. That is over 120 interior points surrendered in the last two games. The Grizzlies won't win a lot of games with that poorous of an interior defense.
Memphis was outrebounded 52 to 35. Darko's early foul trouble started the trouble and it looked like he may have reinjured his ankle as well. Things just don't get better for the Grizzlies frontline on the injury front. Without Gasol or Milicic the Grizzlies simply couldn't compete on the boards or defending in the paint.
The long range shooting showed up but to late to make up the deficit. Going 1-16 from 3 pt land in the first three quarters made a miracle comeback highly unlikely. Still the team didn't drop their heads and give up. This is a good sign for the future. Eventually Memphis will get their big men healthy and with some time together will improve their defense in the middle. It just feels like they will never improve.
Good game for Navarro, Rudy and even Mike Miller who woke up in the fourth to salvage what was otherwise a disappointing game. Mike looked to make the extra pass too often early in the game. He turned down good looks to try and give others better opportunities. While admirable the Grizzlies needed him to be more aggressive. When he started attacking and taking open shots he was very effective.
Damon started strong but faded and Kyle started slow but finished strong. Unfortuantly Kyle got a little too fast down the stretch and made two costly turnovers. Then he took a bog elbow from Baron Davis (who apparently was not going to be fouled out no matter what he did at the end of the game) that nearly knocked him out.
Tough loss but a strong effort tonight. One very bad quarter (the 2nd) pretty much decided the outcome but the team fought hard. Rudy is starting to put together some serious scoring games which has to be a positive.
Once again, it seemed like it was the little things that ultimately decided this game. The obvious "big things," the interior D and rebounding issues that you mentioned, and Darko's foul trouble, were huge, but the guys really overcame all that and had a shot.
ReplyDeleteAnd then several pooly-timed bad decisions basically iced the comeback. One stand-out: with around a minute to go Kyle had Miller open at the key for a 3 attempt, but picked up his dribble and couldn't get him the ball cleanly. I don't know what he was thinking.
You're right about Davis, I counted three blatant no-calls after his 5th foul. That's the kind of thing that makes people question the "soft rules" these refs operate under. Oh well, who's next up...? OH.
THIS IS RUDY GAY'S TEAM. Period.
ReplyDeleteThe sooner we keep him in his natural position and bring in a decent supporting cast...the better. The "Phoenix 4" thing is getting old. Coach I is doing what he can with the pieces he has. It is not his fault we have no concept of defense or rebounding.
I'm sick of watching us sleepwalk through games. WAKE UP CHRIS WALLACE!
First of all sorry for my English, I'm writing from Barcelona.
ReplyDeleteI've seen 6 or 7 grizz games this year, and my impression is that this is a bunch of good, even excellent, players that form a bad team.
I'm a big fan of Gasol and Navarro, and I love the way Gay and Miller play too. But when I see them playing all together I don't see a balanced play. These 4 players spend almost 60% of the playing time and none of them look, in my opinion, as a decent defender. You can't play good/balanced basketball and win games if you play most of the time with 3-4 bad defenders.
I think, that even they are excellent players, to have a good team you need to trade 2 of these 4 players looking for some good defensive intensity, rebounding, etc wich this team totally lacks
Thanks for the words Catgrizzfan. It is hard to argue with what you wrote. I think the team is getting a grip on the talent and deficiencies of the team and will probably attempt to correct some of these issues in the near future. However Navarro has cost us a potential 1st round pick, Miller is making a lot of money, Gasol is injured and probably can't bring what the team needs in a trade without taking on some bad contracts and Rudy Gay is our only potential star player.
ReplyDeleteIt won't be easy to make a deal involving those four players but I believe Chris Wallace will be working hard to improve the team in the near future via a trade.
Another game, another loss.
ReplyDeleteHow good is that Rudy Gay guy? That's the only positive I can think of right now.
That.. and the Magic game is downloading, time to enjoy Rudy's performance.
A week or two back seemed like a game every day, these days seems like a game every 3 days. Wierd how that works.
For Rudy's potential stardom. Maybe it's stating the obvious but as of right now he's there (if he can keep it up) isn't he? but in a scorer Kevin Martin type way. If he can keep it up get more touches and create more for others, I can't think of anything else that would be missing.
About the defense, Miller and Gasol and Swift were around back when it was Hubie and then Fratello. They weren't the best defensive team but not the worst either. It was good enough to win games. It wasn't defensively skilled players, as much as it was team defense.
ReplyDeleteThat went out the window once the city decided it wanted uptempo going into last season. And got even worse once Fratello was out the door.
Defensive minded players would help but still wouldn't solve the problem completely because it's about the opposition finding the weakest link and exploiting it. Perfect example was in Houston when Bonzi went nuts on Lowry and there was no response or adjustment from Ivy/Grizz and he just kept exploiting it over and over. The only adjustment was Ivy screaming his head off to double team after already alot of baskets.
Team defense is the biggest thing in my opinion. And then bringing in some good defenders on top of that when they could actually make a difference. It's funny cause Ivy emphasised it in training camp (rather then uptempo) but unfortunately we haven't seen much of it.
Totally agree, chipc3. I never said it would be easy.
ReplyDeleteIt's just that to be a play-off team we need a huge improvement on defense, and I don't think we can get it with the actual roaster. But shure Chris Wallace is working on it and will do a good job
Aussiegfan, I agree with your point about the team defense. Nevertheless, I think you need at least 1 very skilled defender to play good team defense. Attitude is an important part of the defensive play, and if you have a player like Battier, his attitude is often contagious and improves team defense.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think we agree defense and rebounding (or maybe attitude and willingness) are the main point.
It definately helps, especially if it's a SG/SF who can help stop the scorers who are usually at that position night in night out.
ReplyDeleteAnd then that comes back to the question of Kinsey and if we have this player already or if it was just a fluke last season. Or if he is a scrub or not.
Attitude and willingness is a good point cause early on, regardless of W's or L's, the team seemed to giving less points, when there was still hope.
It was funny you mentioned Battier, cause as long as he was in G town there was W's and as soon as he left so did the W's. Or maybe it was the PA announcer John Paul Stevenson who went with Battier to Houston, maybe he was the secret to the success. Defector!
I think Davis is an excellent players.
ReplyDeleteAu Pair Abroad