Memphis Grizzlies Must Escape Slump Soon and Other Saturday NBA Takeaways
The blue-collar Memphis Grizzlies aren't afraid of a little dirt, but they're getting stuck in the same sludge they typically use to bury their opponents.
Too many stumbles like Saturday's 95-89 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans, and Memphis risks losing critical ground in the overcrowded Western Conference.
Call it a slow death by the Memphis-made mud. The same one that engulfed this team after the intermission, as the Grizzlies watched an 18-point lead completely evaporate. Memphis managed just 39 second-half points while allowing 57 to a Pelicans team still playing without starting point guard Jrue Holiday and sweet-shooting sixth man Ryan Anderson.
Teams are bound to trip up during the NBA's 82-game grind, especially when a stoppable force meets the immovable object known as Anthony Davis.
Davis' dominance is nothing new, but it wasn't the reason Memphis dropped this game.
The Pelicans got 42 points on 22 shots from Tyreke Evans and Eric Gordon. Jeff Green led the Grizzlies with 20 points, but he shot just 8-of-18 from the field. Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol combined for only 15 points and misfired on 12 of their 17 field-goal attempts.
Memphis is well-versed in ugly affairs, but there are limits on how grotesque things can get. Miss 10 of 29 free throws and have three starters play at least 24 minutes and score fewer than nine points, and you're begging for trouble.
The big-picture problem is this isn't an isolated incident for the grit-and-grind crew. The Grizzlies are just 5-5 over their last 10 games, a stretch littered with unimpressive victories and head-scratching defeats.
Memphis has been outscored by an average of 4.1 points per game during this run. It would be one thing if the Grizzlies were matching up with murderers' row, but it's quite another when they're losing to the short-handed Pellies, banged-up Oklahoma City Thunder, directionless Sacramento Kings and unproven Utah Jazz.
Scoring single-digit victories over the youthful Minnesota Timberwolves and Kobe Bryant-less Los Angeles Lakers doesn't exactly inspire much confidence, either.
The Grizzlies can hold court with the any of the league's premier teams. They are 24-11 against teams with a winning record. But they're just as likely to get bogged down in unnecessary battles with bottom-feeders.
"If we play with guys, we're not into it, there's no ball pressure, there's no communication, there's not five guys tied together, it's going to be really hard for us to win games," Marc Gasol told reporters after Memphis' come-from-behind win over L.A. on Friday. "We need to do it every possession."
It's far too late in the season for the Grizzlies to have this dalliance with disaster. With the Houston Rockets scoring a 114-100 win over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, Memphis' buffer in the Southwest Division has dwindled to 1.5 games.
The margin for error is gone, and it's hard to see it returning with Dwight Howard working his way back. And if Houston fails to climb the ladder, both the Dallas Mavericks (five games out) and San Antonio Spurs (5.5) are still within striking distance.
Life in the mud is inherently unattractive, but it doesn't have to look like this. The Grizzlies were sitting pretty at 37-12 and had the league's fifth-best point-differential on Feb. 4.
But it's been a grueling grind since, and not the type that Memphis prefers. If the Grizzlies can't snap out of this soon, the damage done could be catastrophic.
Around the Association
Cleveland Gets Back on Track
Following a 106-97 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday evening, the Cleveland Cavaliers bounced back with a stifling defensive display.
Although a late-game malaise briefly threatened the Cavaliers' best efforts, dominance during the first three quarters ensured an ugly 89-79 victory over the Phoenix Suns.
Over the first 36 minutes, Cleveland outscored Phoenix 80-52, which helped mitigate the effects of a 27-9 fourth-quarter deficit.
LeBron James shed his trademark headband for most of Saturday's win, but fear not—his superpowers didn't magically disappear. James finished with 17 points, eight assists and six rebounds while center Timofey Mozgov led the way with 19 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
Kyrie Irving chipped in eight points, and Kevin Love notched his 32nd double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 boards.
The Suns' two-game winning streak was snapped in the process, although Gerald Green (11 points) briefly stole the show with this rim-rocking slam:
Things won’t get any easier for the Suns, who are slated to host the Golden State Warriors on Monday night.
Noel Pushes Sixers Past Hawks
Andrew Wiggins may have Rookie of the Year honors wrapped up, but Nerlens Noel isn’t going down without a fight. In the Philadelphia 76ers’ 92-84 victory over the Atlanta Hawks, Noel finished with 11 points, 17 rebounds and five steals.
According to Sixers.com’s Max Rappaport, Noel became the first rookie in 18 years to post those single-game tallies:
Since the All-Star break, Noel has been on a mission. Over his last 10 games, the flat-topped center is averaging 11.8 points, 10 rebounds, 2.9 blocks and 2.7 steals. According to Basketball-Reference, he’s on pace to become the first rookie since David Robinson to average at least 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks.
And while Atlanta rested Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll, Sixers head coach Brett Brown didn’t see the need to qualify his team’s win:
Hollis Thompson scorched Atlanta to the tune of 19 points (7-of-10 shooting, 5-of-7 from three) off the bench while Robert Covington and Isaiah Canaan added 12 points apiece. Jeff Teague led Atlanta with 17 points on 5-of-13 shooting, but the Hawks shot a meager 39 percent from the field in the loss.
The Andrea Bargnani Redemption Tour Continues
Andrea Bargnani is never going to live down his draft-bust status, but he's still proving himself capable of contributing on the NBA stage.
Granted, those contributions are coming on the league's worst team. And the 7-footer remains allergic to rebounding.
But if you're willing to live with those limits, the guy has something to offer. His 21 points on 10-of-14 shooting Saturday was his fourth outing of at least 19 points in his last five tries. More impressively, the career 43.8 percent shooter has converted 55.2 percent of his field-goal attempts over this stretch.
As Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix noted, Bargnani actually helped the Knicks on both sides of the ball:
New York still suffered a 92-86 loss to the Indiana Pacers, who have won five in a row and 11 of their last 13. But the Knicks outscored the Pacers by six points during Bargnani's 31-plus minutes, so it's hard to pin the defeat on him.
And that's assuming Knicks fans mind losing enough at this point to blame them on anyone.
Blazers Miss Wesley Matthews Already
Wesley Matthews' ruptured Achilles tendon hurt the Portland Trail Blazers as much as it did the 28-year-old.
On and off the court, he's been an invaluable piece of this puzzle. Inside the lines, Matthews is a lockdown defender, a lethal three-point shooter and, as of this season, a 15.9 points-per-game scorer. Inside the locker room, he's the emotional leader that keeps Portland's engine running.
But if the Blazers could survive a night without him, Saturday seemed like the one. That's when they visited the Timberwolves, a team that entered the matchup with four consecutive losses.
The respective records wound up getting tossed out the window. Matthews' absence was the only thing that mattered in Portland's 121-113 loss to Minnesota.
Matthews' replacement Arron Afflalo scored 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting before fouling out after 32 minutes. But Portland's biggest problems came at the opposite end, as Wolves wings Kevin Martin and Andrew Wiggins combined for 47 points on 19-of-36 shooting.
The Blazers bench combined for 22 points, five fewer than Minnesota reserve Gary Neal had in under 22 minutes of action. That's how the 70 total points put up by Damian Lillard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Nicolas Batum wound up being not enough.
Get well soon, Wes. The Blazers really need you back.
Disaster Strikes D.C. ... Again
At some point, the Washington Wizards are going to hit rock bottom. But good luck guessing when that will take place.
Washington's debilitating decline continued with a 91-85 defeat at the hands of a Milwaukee Bucks team that entered play with a single win—over the lowly Sixers—to show for its last seven outings.
The Wizards' offense, if we're allowed to call it that, was dreadful. Paul Pierce was the high man with 14 points on 15 shots. John Wall finished with only 11 points on 3-of-14 shooting. Washington shot 38.3 percent overall, the third time in six games it's converted fewer than 39 percent of its attempts.
Khris Middleton led the Bucks with a career-high 30 points, hitting 11-of-20 from the field and 6-of-9 from three. The Wizards made nine threes as a team and missed 19.
Washington still sits fifth in the Eastern Conference standings, but it holds just a 1.5-game lead on Milwaukee. And it held the conference's second overall seed less than two months ago.
Losing 13 of your last 17 games can have that effect. It'd be nice to say rock bottom is in sight, but who knows at this point?
J.R. Smith Is a Bad Man
Dirty. Wrong. Filthy.
Any of those would be fitting descriptions of what J.R. Smith did to Brandon Knight early in the first quarter.
Maybe defense just isn't Knight's thing.
Stay aggressive, J.R. You're a highlight waiting to happen when you do.
*Alec Nathan contributed to this article.
*Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference and NBA.com.
