MikeCheck: Grizzlies are ‘all frustrated right now’ as they chart recovery path from recent slide
Michael WallacePORTLAND – For the Grizzlies, it’s time to talk.
As the franchise anchor and a primary veteran voice inside the locker room, Marc Gasol made at least that much clear as the Grizzlies pushed forward on their longest and most difficult trip of the season entering Wednesday’s game against the Trail Blazers.
Memphis is mired in a bit of a mess right now. Nagging injuries are piling up, scoring for what’s always been an execution-challenged offense is now way down and the team is still trying to regain its collective emotional balance after a botched trade last weekend shook the locker room.
And over the past three weeks, the Grizzlies have largely alternated sluggish starts and flat finishes at a time when the schedule has intensified in competition, regularity and travel. Since starting 12-5 and climbing to the top of the West standings, the Grizzlies have dropped nine of their past 13 games to dip to 16-14 and eighth in a tight conference race.
Gasol declined to specify exactly what corrective measures are needed, but did suggest it’s time to take inventory of where everything stands as the Grizzlies aim to bounce back from Monday’s blowout loss at Golden State.
“There are a few, but it’s not to be talked about and commented on with you guys (in the media),” Gasol said as Memphis seeks to avoid its first four-game losing streak of the season. “It’s more to talk amongst ourselves and have discussions as co-workers and as friends and as teammates. There are a few things that we need to do more of that we are doing well, and things that we’re not doing so well that we need to do a little less. I always go back to practice and how much the lack of practice affects that kind of thing. So we have to build it through the games, and it’s not easy.”
And as Monday’s game revealed, it’s nearly impossible to accomplish much without point guard Mike Conley’s steady guidance on the court. Conley missed his first game of the season on Monday as a lingering hamstring strain tightened after a stretch of three games in four nights. That was then followed by a cross-country flight to start this four-game, eight-day West coast trip.
Conley initially strained the hamstring in a Dec. 10 loss at Denver, but played well two nights later and finished with 23 points, six assists and six rebounds in 32 minutes during a home win against the Blazers. He then played 37 minutes on each end of a back-to-back set in losses to the Heat and Rockets on Friday and Saturday before the Grizzlies flew to San Francisco on Sunday.
There are a few things that we need to do more of that we are doing well, and things that we’re not doing so well that we need to do a little less… So we have to build it through the games, and it’s not easy.
Marc GasolConley believes he may have slightly tweaked the hamstring late in Saturday’s loss to Houston and experiences some tightness leading into Monday’s pregame shootaround before he sat out against the Warriors to get more treatment. Even with Conley, who is averaging a team-high and career-high 20.4 points and 6.5 assists, the Grizzlies rank last in the league in pace and 28th in scoring.
Without his playmaking and direction, Memphis was lost from the outset against the two-time defending champion Warriors, who led by more than 20 points in the first half and finished by scoring 27 points off Memphis miscues. It was the eighth time in nine games this month that the Grizzlies have failed to reach 100 points. And after missing 18 of 25 three-point attempts, it was the eighth consecutive game Memphis has made fewer than 10 from beyond the arc.
“Mentally, we’ve just got to be able to withstand those games when we’re not great offensively by playing great defense,” guard Garrett Temple said of the offensive woes. “If we can get back to consistently turning defense into offense, we can fill some of those offensive gaps that we’ve had. But we’ve also just been missing shots that we made earlier. We’re confident that they’ll start to fall again.”
Grizzlies coach J.B. Bickerstaff is fond of using other sports in analogies to describe his team’s plight. From a baseball standpoint, there’s no grand slam to hit to emerge from the recent slump. One swing won’t get Memphis out of this. A far more methodical approach is required. The four teams they face on this trip opened the week in the top eight of the West and had a combined 70-48 record.
The Grizzlies must dig in to climb out.
“In this stretch, we’ve had issues with consistency,” Bickerstaff said. “We may play three good quarters and have a bad quarter. We may have a bad five or six-minute stretch that we just can’t get out of. We just have to make sure we put together total games. If we have a one-minute lapse, we have to cut it there. We can’t allow it to snowball into three, four or five minutes that we’re not doing things we’re capable of at a high level.”
The Grizzlies practiced Tuesday in San Francisco before flying to Portland, where Conley is hopeful of returning to finish a trip that continues at Sacramento on Friday and closes out Sunday against the Lakers. He participated in shooting and conditioning drills at Tuesday’s workout and will be reevaluated after Wednesday morning’s shootaround in Portland. Toughing out this trip will be a challenge with a few other key players also dealing with nagging ailments.
But when you go back and watch, for the most part, there are things that we can control. We just have to do a better job of controlling those things… And if we do things we do well, over and over again, we like our chances.
J.B. BickerstaffStarting small forward Kyle Anderson, who had 14 points in 24 minutes against Golden State after missing the Houston game with a sprained ankle, said he’s “still not quite 100 percent,” but will find ways to contribute. And Gasol acknowledged last week that he’s still nursing some soreness from an ankle issue that’s quietly affected him for nearly a month.
But Gasol refuses to use any of those factors as a crutch.
“Everybody is banged up,” Gasol adamantly said. “We can’t go back to that. That’s why NBA teams have 15 guys on the roster (and) two Two-Ways. We can’t go back and use that excuse ‘people are banged up’ because everybody is. Go around the NBA and everyone has something. There’s no way you’re going to play 25, 30-plus minutes a night and not be banged up. That’s the nature of the business.”
Veteran leadership and the ability to share clear, constructive criticism have been strengths of this team. Thirty games into the schedule, there’s plenty to dissect and reconnect. When the season opened with a revamped roster around Conley and Gasol, the point Bickerstaff kept making was the Grizzlies would progress to being a different team by mid-December than they were in mid-October.
These weren’t necessarily the results the team had in mind. And least not recently.
“We’re all frustrated,” Bickerstaff said. “But when you go back and watch, for the most part, there are things that we can control. We just have to do a better job of controlling those things, whether it’s the defensive glass, a stagnant quarter on offense where we’re just standing around at the end. Those are things we can control. And if we do things we do well, over and over again, we like our chances.”
The road can be a relentless place to turn things around. But the Grizzlies have no other choice. They’re out here now. And there are only two clear paths through their most extensive stretch of adversity so far this season.
Communication and execution.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Memphis Grizzlies. All opinions expressed by Michael Wallace are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Memphis Grizzlies or its Basketball Operations staff, owners, parent companies, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Memphis Grizzlies and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.
Published on Dec 18, 2018
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