Wednesday NBA Roundup: Marc Gasol Won't Let Grizzlies' Puzzling Season Unravel
The strangest thing about the Memphis Grizzlies' 98-86 win over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday? The perfect sense it made.
Up until that result, fueled by a career-high-tying 38 points from a wholly dominant Marc Gasol, little about the Grizzlies' season felt logical.
It started with a run of clutch wins that seemed unsustainable...until Memphis sustained them. Then there was Gasol's inexplicable development into a three-point sniper. Next came the 7-2 mark without Mike Conley (who'd been playing the best ball of his life before a back fracture). And then, oddest of all, three straight losses following Conley's early return.
If that nonsensical streak had held, the Grizz surely would have lost Wednesday's meeting with a reeling Pistons team fresh off three straight losses, a players-only meeting and a thorough dressing down from head coach Stan Van Gundy.
But Memphis broke the pattern, and it did so in a way that hinted at how it'll break down opponents from now on.
After building a 10-point advantage after the first quarter, the Grizzlies fought off Detroit's repeated charges. And then Gasol took over with a third-quarter surge, per Keith Langlois of Pistons.com:
It broke them:
The Grizzlies leaned on Gasol for their offense, and he punished Detroit, leading the way with his scoring, passing and total offensive game. He made 14 of his 17 shots, grabbed five boards, handed out four assists and snaked a pair of steals.
Gasol made Andre Drummond look like he was stuck in cement on an early jump hook:
Then, he buried a three (he hit two of his three attempts) and blew past Jon Leuer on an up-fake from behind the arc during the next possession.
Gasol used to be the league's best defensive player. Now, he's still great on that end (obviously):
But with the added bonus of being an offensive weapon without weakness.
Conley wasn't anything special against Detroit, scoring nine points in 24 minutes, but the guy setting career highs in efficiency and volume earlier this year isn't gone. He's just finding his footing after time off.
Via Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, head coach David Fizdale had it right when he explained Conley's and the team's struggles over the last week as the predictable result of rust:
"Our guys coming back from injury are really out of rhythm. And they’re probably coming back sooner than expected, which means it’s really rough offensively. Their timing is all over the place. Even recollection of some of our sets. When you don’t do dummy offense for weeks or a month, you don’t know the plays as well and the timing of them.
"
Memphis suddenly has more ways to be successful than it has in years: Gasol beasting on both ends at an MVP-candidate level. Conley sure to sort himself out and a young. An athletic corps of role-fillers that had no choice but to mature with Conley sidelined.
Yes, the defense remains the league's best; the backward, confounding theme of this season isn't pervasive enough to change that. But in addition to predictably suffocating stopping power, Memphis also has shooting specialists like Troy Daniels, Zach Randolph as a bench anchor, some hungry youth and, wait for it...Chandler Parsons, who played for the first time since Nov. 18 on Wednesday.
So while it's tempting to frame the narrative as Memphis having to choose between what it was before Conley's injury and what it became after, that's the wrong way to think about it.
The Grizzlies don't have to pick.
They can be both. They can be everything.
It makes sense that Memphis—healthier, adding surprising new skills all the time and developing its youth—should be primed for a run. But it's probably best not to talk about the Grizzlies making sense.
Buy the Bucks
Despite getting swept in a home-and-home set by the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Milwaukee Bucks have sold me.
It took 47 minutes and a handful of obscene shots by LeBron James to beat the Bucks in overtime on Tuesday, and Cleveland got loads of above-and-beyond performances in beating Milwaukee again, 113-102, on Wednesday.
James effectively nullified the only viable defense against him, hitting three of his first four triple attempts en route to 29 points, nine rebounds and six assists. It was downright unfair to Jabari Parker, who finished with 27 points but was out of options when James kept drilling treys, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com:
It's important to understand something here: If James is making you pay for going under screens, there is no backup plan. You're done. It's over.
And then Kyrie Irving, shot-creator extraordinaire, started setting teammates up. He finished with a career-high 13 assists to go with 31 points.
If you're the Bucks, be encouraged. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 28 points, five rebounds and five assists on 7-of-13 shooting and is now indisputably one of the league's best all-around players. Your defense still ranks 10th after two dates with the Cavs, and it took a pair of serious efforts by the defending champs to beat you.
Milwaukee's a playoff team. Book it*
*Or don't. It's your life, man. Make your own decisions.
Kyle Korver: Enforcer
It took 15 years and four teams, but we finally have proof Kyle Korver has been playing out of position for his whole career.
With Dwight Howard out again, Korver started at power forward alongside the similarly undersized Paul Millsap at center. And while Millsap cooked his counterpart in the pivot:
Korver displayed his defensive capabilities with four blocks during the second quarter of Atlanta's 92-84 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Clearly, that career 42.9 percent conversion rate from deep fooled every coach Korver ever had.
He should have been patrolling the lane as a rim-protector all along.
Mike Budenholzer wasn't swayed, though. Mike Muscala started ahead of him in the second half. It seems Korver's true nature as an enforcer remains unappreciated.
Don't Make John Wall Angry
Coming off their best offensive outing of the season—a 113-82 win over the Pistons on Monday that featured season highs of 59.8 percent shooting from the field, 34 assists and 49 made buckets—the Chicago Bulls looked like they were going to extend their scoring run against John Wall and the Washington Wizards.
Chicago's 11-point lead on 62.5 percent shooting in the first quarter had Washington in trouble.
And then Wall got upset over a no-call, earned a technical and changed the game.
As Candace Buckner of the Washington Post pointed out, this has been something of a theme for Wall this year:
The Wizards would surely prefer that Wall's post-tech performance from this game become the more consistent element. He took control of the third quarter, scoring and facilitating at his typical breakneck pace, finishing the contest with 23 points, nine assists and six boards.
Kyle Weidie of Truth About It captured one such sequence:
Washington earned its fourth win in its last five games and scored at least 105 points for the fifth outing in a row. At 13-15, the Wizards are suddenly alive.
Also, Jimmy Butler is an American hero. He struck out boldly against the deplorable scourge of incessant in-arena music.
Build that man a statue.
It's All Relative
We're at a point now where Russell Westbrook posting 42 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists is barely reportable news. He got those numbers during a 121-110 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday, which, meh.
But hey! Alex Abrines scored 18 points off the bench and hit five of his 11 attempts from deep!
I mean, wow, right?
Russ remains the story, of course, but the Oklahoma City Thunder finding someone who can hit a triple once in a while is a major deal. Abrines, the 23-year-old rookie from Spain, had only hit 15 threes on the year coming into Wednesday's game. And his big night only bumped his conversion rate up to 29 percent.
But he was supposed to be a sniper when he came over from Europe, having hit at least 41 percent from the shorter FIBA line during each of his final three years with Liga ACB of the Spanish League.
Westbrook's wacky numbers will count for a lot more if Abrines finds that stroke.
It Can Always Be Worse
Though it's small consolation to the Portland Trail Blazers—who lost their fourth straight game and eighth in their last nine—a 13-18 record in late December isn't a season-killer.
They should know that, though, after starting 11-20 last year.
Portland fell 96-95 to the lowly Dallas Mavericks, who won just their second road game of the season. After erasing a 25-point deficit behind Damian Lillard's 20-point third quarter, the Blazers ran out of gas (and couldn't generate decent looks) down the stretch. Two last-gasp possessions yielded a turnover and a no-chance 28-footer from Lillard.
The Blazers defense remains the league's worst, which easily precludes the optimism stemming from last season's surge. Though Dallas didn't crack the century mark, Portland allowed its previous three opponents to post at least 126 points.
Reversing this second-annual horrid start will take gumption and defense...but mostly defense.
Wednesday's Final Scores
- Cleveland Cavaliers 113, Milwaukee Bucks 102
- Minnesota Timberwolves 92, Atlanta Hawks 84
- Memphis Grizzlies 98, Detroit Pistons 86
- Washington Wizards 107, Chicago Bulls 97
- Oklahoma City Thunder 121, New Orleans Pelicans 110
- Sacramento Kings 94, Utah Jazz 93
- Houston Rockets 125, Phoenix Suns 111
- Dallas Mavericks 96, Portland Trail Blazers 95
Follow Grant on Twitter @gt_hughes and Facebook.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated. Accurate through games played Thursday, Dec. 21.
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