Grizz Struck by Westbrook & the Thunder

Posted on January 12, 2017 by Carmen Patton

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The Memphis Grizzlies headed to Oklahoma City to face the Thunder for their third nationally televised game in the last 6 days. They’d been victorious in a comeback win Friday at Oracle Arena against the Warriors on ESPN, and seen a home victory against the Jazz Sunday on NBA TV. After a few days rest, they were looking to score a win against the Thunder on ESPN last night. Westbrook and the Thunder (since that’s pretty much how the match-up was promoted) had other plans though.

This was the second match-up between the two teams this season. The first game was in Memphis, and the home team was victorious. So, after the 103-95 victory by the Thunder last night, the teams are now 1-1 for the season series thus far. The win also pushed the Grizzlies from the 5th spot in the Western Conference back to the 7th. Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly of last night’s game.

The Good

Chandler Parsons is continuing to show improvement as he gets his legs under him and gets more minutes of playing time. He played just over 18 minutes and scored 14 points points (7-12) and had one steal.

Mike Conley managed to squeeze out another 20+ point game. In 36 minutes of play, he had 22 points (8-20; 3-7 from three), 6 assists, 3 steals and 2 rebounds.

The bench remained competitive scoring 44 points (versus 43 by OKC). Randolph had a near double double with 14 points and 9 rebounds in 26 minutes. Vince Carter (3-6) made 3 of his 4 three point shots and had 11 points in 29 minutes. James Ennis III (4-5) had 10 points in 18 minutes.

The Bad

Some of the decisions by Coach Fizdale seemed a bit off last night. He acknowledged that he’d made some mistakes that in hindsight he regretted. The good in this bad is that he’s accountable and owns his mess.

“I wasn’t very good. There was twice there where we got an extra possession, and I should have called timeout, and we ended up getting a crap possession after a full clock, and I had opportunities to call timeout and I’m pissed at myself that I didn’t do that. So, I try to own as much of this, it’s as much on me as it is our guys.”

– Coach David Fizdale

Troy Daniels, who rained threes in the first match-up between these two teams, was 1-4 and ended the game with 3 points. He, however, didn’t come into the game until the 4th quarter and played less than 10 minutes.

JaMychal Green led the team in rebounds with 10 (2 OR; 8 DR) and was able to defend, including 1 block and 1 steal. Offensively, however, he struggled with only 4 points (2-10) in almost 32 minutes of play. Combining his defense with Zach Randolph’s offense (he was a defensive liability at times) would have made the game better for both of them.

Andrew Harrison made 40 percent of his shots (2-5), didn’t turn the ball over, had 1 steal and no fouls. BUT…that’s good, right?! Yes it is. This is included among the bad because on a night that his stats looked like this, he was only able to see just over 10 minutes of action after the good showing that he had in the first match-up where we were victorious.

On his 35th birthday, Tony Allen was only able to score 2 points (1-5) in 22 minutes. He did have 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal though.

The Ugly

Marc Gasol played just over 36 minutes but couldn’t buy a bucket it seemed. He had 9 points (4-12), 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 2 blocks. In a game where Gasol has less than 10 points, the Grizzlies will always be in an uphill battle to win. Though it can be said that he compensated his lack of scoring with effective distribution, the Grizzlies simply can’t win when Gasol scores like this. Sadly, Mama said there’d be days like this…

Russell Westbrook scored his first triple double EVER against the Grizzlies. He led all scorers and had 24 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists. The Thunder also had Enes Kanter (19), Victor Oladipo (16), Steven Adams (12), and Jerami Grant (10) to score in double figures.

All the sads. All the sads.

Free throw shooting was abysmal. The Grizzlies had 21 opportunities at the charity stripe, but they were only able to connect on 12. They missed some crucial shots in that fourth quarter run including 2 by Conley on free throw attempts he was given for a 3 point shot midway through the quarter and 2 crucial ones by Carter that would would have put the Grizzlies within 2 points of the Thunder with just 1:55 left in the game.

“We missed a lot of shots and a lot of free throws throughout the course of the game…we are going to look back and see that bit us a little bit. But all in all, we stayed the course, we stayed in the game, we just fell short to a very good team.”

-Vince Carter

What’s Next

There is no use in crying over spilled milk. The Grizzlies are officially at the halfway mark of the season and headed into game 42. The next game will be against another triple double machine, James Harden and the Houston Rockets. They had their 9 game winning streak snapped last night when they were defeated by the Timberwolves, so they’ll be looking to win in front of their home crowd on Friday. Will the Grizzlies play tighter defense? Will their offense be improved with better three point shooting and more accuracy from the 3 point line? Will they play a consistent game for 48 full minutes? Keep your eyes focused on the prize Grind City. There’s more gritting and grinding to do…

**Sources used nba.com**