Zach Randolph Injury Kills the Memphis Grizzlies' Season

It was just over a few months ago that the Memphis Grizzlies and Oklahoma City Thunder played a thrilling seven-game series that showed off the bright future for both franchises.

Memphis had a good offseason by re-signing Marc Gasol and they looked like a team ready to take the next step, especially since they would be getting a healthy Rudy Gay back in the lineup.

One thing you can't account for, though, is injuries, and the Grizzlies have been hit bad during the season's first couple of weeks.

They already lost Darrell Arthur for the season with a torn ACL. Point guard Mike Conley also went down with a sprained ankle, but it's their latest loss that may be too much to overcome.

They will be without forward Zach Randolph for up to eight weeks after an MRI revealed that he suffered a slight tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee.

That could be the bad news that wrecks the Grizzlies' season.

With the shortened schedule, the Grizzlies will play 30 games over the next eight weeks. That's practically half the season to be without a guy that averaged 20.1 points and 12.2 rebounds per game a season ago.

Randolph might not only be the Grizzlies' best player, he's also likely their most irreplaceable.

Memphis is very thin in the frontcourt and even if they had the capable bodies, making up for Randolph's lost production would be very difficult, but in this case, it could be next to impossible.

The Grizzlies did just acquire Marreese Speights from Philadelphia, but he's really nothing more than a body at this point.

Memphis could still make a run at the postseason, but it will be very difficult without Randolph consistently drawing double-teams.

Gay is a good enough player to help carry them through the next two months and the Grizzlies do have some other good parts, but they could find themselves in a big hole really quick.

Sometimes when it rains it pours when dealing with injuries, and the Memphis Grizzlies have become the NBA's hard-luck team in 2012.