Memphis Grizzlies Struggling with Style Revamp and Wednesday NBA Takeaways
The Memphis Grizzlies and Chicago Bulls have been engaged this year in parallel efforts to shed their old-school identities in favor of more modern, pace-and-space attacks.
It's been a battle for survival, really, as both the Grizz and Bulls have watched a league changing around them while struggling to slot ill-fitting personnel into styles that better suit the times.
Chicago's 98-85 win over Memphis on Wednesday showed the Grizzlies are a lot further away from adapting than the Bulls are.
Because while Chicago got an early burst from an unusually aggressive Derrick Rose, who attacked the basket and pushed the ball in a season-best 10-point first quarter, Mike Conley struggled to get anything going offensively all night. He finished with only eight points and seven rebounds in 34 minutes.
Conley was hardly the Grizzlies' main problem, though, as the team shot just 42.1 percent from the field and made only five of 19 shots from long range on the night. As they so often have for the Grizzlies this season, possessions stalled, contested jumpers became the norm and points were painfully hard to come by. A 13-point third quarter followed by just 19 in the fourth offered good evidence for why Memphis has lost eight games by at least 15 points this season.
All too frequently, its scoring simply disappears.
The result in Chicago was particularly discouraging because the Grizzlies recently shook up their first unit, moving Zach Randolph to the bench in favor of a Jeff Green-Matt Barnes frontcourt combo that, in theory, was supposed to add shooting and spacing to a chronically cramped offense.
Barnes and Green combined to hit just one triple in six attempts, while Randolph outplayed both, scoring 10 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and dishing five assists off the pine.
Though Chicago is nowhere close to functioning like a modern NBA offense, either, it at least has the personnel that appears more suited to someday complete the transition. Jimmy Butler generally looks like he can do anything, and he led the way with 24 points on the night. More importantly, second-year sniper Doug McDermott provided the kind of can't-leave-him spacing that the Grizzlies don't generate.
He was a sterling 6-of-12 from the field and 4-of-8 from deep, spotting up in the corner and ripping jumpers off high-velocity curls that left the Grizzlies scrambling.
So while the Bulls broke through their stagnant norms with gems like this, Memphis had to continually grind out possessions:
At the risk of oversimplifying, the difference has more to do with personnel than anything. Memphis doesn't have a Butler, who creates shots from nothing and gets to the foul line to salvage possessions. It doesn't have the luxury of tossing out a guy like Nikola Mirotic, hoping he spaces the floor and sitting him back down for the sporadically exciting Tony Snell if he can't.
And it certainly doesn't have a knockdown threat like McDermott whom, if the Bulls are serious about uncorking a real offensive explosion, simply has to play more. He is the kind of shooter (44.6 percent from deep) who fundamentally changes a defense's game plan, attracting tight coverage that opens things up for everyone else.
Rose understands the weapon his team has, per K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:
Barnes, Green, Conley and Courtney Lee have hit a few threes in their day, but no defense ever sells out or sacrifices its integrity elsewhere to stop them from getting good looks. And that's something to keep in mind if Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger faces continued rumors about his job security, as HoopsCritic.com's Brian Geltzeiler noted.
Memphis lacks the talent necessary to meaningfully change its identity, and Joerger has tinkered as much as the limited roster will allow. Starting Barnes over Randolph is clearly not the answer the Grizzlies need, but it's all they have.
It's not clear if either the Bulls or Grizzlies can engineer the kind of wholesale stylistic changes they'll need to compete against the league's best. But if you had to pick just one of them, you'd be crazy to go with the Grizzlies.
Nobody Panic, The Warriors Are Fine
So, 81-1 then?
The Golden State Warriors got started on their next winning streak, smoking the Phoenix Suns, 128-103, on Wednesday and showing no ill effects from their first loss of the season on Dec. 12.
In their typical over-at-halftime, a-sick-joke-after-three style, the Warriors blitzed the Suns behind the usual suspects. Stephen Curry scored a tidy 25 on 14 shots, drilling triples with his mouthpiece half out just because.
Draymond Green posted a triple-double (16 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) with five steals, and Klay Thompson scored 27 of his 43 in a third quarter that was more exhibition than contest.
Cracks started to show as the winning streak stretched on, and the Warriors had to settle for grinding out wins rather than rampaging teams early and cruising to the finish. Fatigue, pressure, the road and injuries were all factors contributing to the slow slippage that bottomed out with a loss to the Bucks.
Now, refreshed, the Warriors look as dangerous as ever. The league still belongs to them.
Monta Ellis Takes Things Personally
Monta Ellis looked to be pressing in his first meeting with the Dallas Mavericks, perhaps hoping to stick it to the squad that let him walk as a free agent this past summer.
It didn't go so well at first, as Ellis got off to an 0-of-9 start. Unperturbed, the former Mav kept shooting and put together three straight makes that coincided with Indiana pulling away in the second half. And it's worth noting that Ellis didn't succumb entirely to scoring tunnel vision, with Matt Moore of CBSSports.com providing highlights:
"That passing by the Pacers pic.twitter.com/QHUqtfKOfL
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) December 17, 2015"
He finished with 19 points, tying Paul George for the game high in the Pacers' 107-81 win.
Indy's surprising 15-9 record is the product of smaller lineups and the scoring punch of C.J. Miles and George. Ellis has struggled mightily as a third option, shooting under 30 percent from deep and looking a step slower as he's aged.
If the Pacers expect to sustain their strong start, Ellis will have to be a part of it.
Scott Agness of VigilantSports.com noted that though Ellis claimed Wednesday's contest was just another game, the smile he wore after the win suggested otherwise.
Maybe the Pacers can just tell Ellis they're playing Dallas every night.
There's More Than One Way to Build A Winner
Maybe it's just a personal thing and nobody else is all that fired up about the Orlando Magic and Charlotte Hornets being fun, functional, winning teams. But Wednesday's meeting between these surprising East upstarts had a lot to offer.
Channing Frye led all scorers with 17 points in the Magic's 113-98 win, but the appeal was spread broadly over a number of players. It was more about overarching style and confidence than anything. The ball was hopping, open threes came in bushels and Spencer Hawes nutmegged Jason Smith:
It is a hard and fast rule that between-the-legs passes like that make games fun—and that they'll be featured here whenever possible.
To be fair, the Magic enjoyed this one more than the Hornets. Orlando just couldn't miss from the field (55.8 percent) or from three (58.3 percent on 24 attempts) and got contributions up and down the roster. Seven Magic players scored in double figures; 10 had at least six points.
The Hornets lost Nicolas Batum to an illness at halftime, and his absence made it impossible to keep pace with the Magic's dialed-in attack.
More than anything, this game showed there's no one path to success. Orlando patiently drafted loads of lottery picks and waited for them to develop, while the Hornets jettisoned one of theirs, Noah Vonleh, for Batum, who's been playing All-Star ball and deserves a lot of credit for transforming Charlotte's offense with his clever passing.
They got there in different ways, but Charlotte and Orlando are in the thick of the crowded East playoff race. And they figure to stay there for the duration.
Andre Drummond Is Too Close
Andre Drummond is a career 39 percent free-throw shooter, yet anecdotal evidence culled from the Detroit Pistons' 119-116 win over the Boston Celtics on Wednesday reveals he's hitting a remarkable 100 percent of contested half-court heaves this season.
Look at that arc! That perfect, on-line-the-whole-way trajectory!
Tracy McGrady and Nick Van Exel (look 'em up, kids) shot their free throws a step behind the line, so there's a precedent here. What we're proposing for Drummond is just a bit more extreme.
Half-court free throws, big guy. Don't fight the percentages.
The Succession Is Upon Us
I've always had this suspicion that even the New York Knicks fans who'd most vocally defend Carmelo Anthony against the typical knocks—he stops the ball, he doesn't defend, he doesn't make teammates better—did it more out of obligation than affinity. Yeah, he's a problem, but he's our problem.
It was a complicated thing, supporting 'Melo as a favorite even as he was so obviously flawed.
There are no such complications with rookie Kristaps Porzingis, whose rise to favored-son status in New York felt complete in the Knicks' 107-102 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, per Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal:
Porzingis won the highlight battle against fellow rookie darling Karl-Anthony Towns, blocking seven shots in the contest. He became the first Knicks player with at least three six-block games in a season (he's played just 26 games so far, mind you) since Patrick Ewing, per NBA analyst Jared Dubin:
Towns posted 25 points and 10 boards in response.
Anthony is still going to take more shots and occupy a bigger space in the league-wide conversation. And it's vital to mention that he can coexist with the rookie going forward. The Knicks went on a huge run to close the first half with Anthony and Porzingis occupying the 4 and 5 spots together, and 'Melo finished the night with a monster line of 20 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists.
But New Yorkers have spoken: The Knicks are Porzingis' team now.
Have a Game, Ricky Rubio
Two blurbs for a Knicks-Wolves game?
We here at the Roundup Conglomerate understand your time is important to you, so, yes, but only because Ricky Rubio came one point and two steals short of a quadruple-double. It would have been the first such four-stat feat to include steals in almost three decades, per Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated:
Rest assured two-blurb nights will, in the future, be confined to near-quadruple-doubles and/or any Robin Lopez-on-mascot violence.
Richaun Holmes Has Your Process Right Here
Welp! The Philadelphia 76ers lost again—this time by a final of 127-106 to the Atlanta Hawks.
The game was over in the first quarter, as the Hawks got whatever they wanted whenever they wanted, hitting 61.5 percent of their shots on the night. It was the kind of defensive generosity you'd expect from a team falling to 1-26 on the year.
But because this is the Sixers, a young guy you've most likely never heard of showed a flash. This tends to happen when most of the roster consists of unheralded youth, and the highlight generator in this instance was Richaun Holmes—a second-rounder out of Bowling Green.
One of these long shots has to pan out eventually. Maybe Holmes will be the one.
Actually, probably not. But what else are we going to talk about with this team?
Next!
The Spurs Have Never Been Better
Digest that header for a second.
The San Antonio Spurs' 114-95 yawner over the visiting Washington Wizards gave them their 23rd consecutive home win—a franchise record that only adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting this year's Spurs are up to something special.
Coming into the game, San Antonio had eclipsed the Golden State Warriors in average margin of victory. And even with Tim Duncan sitting out to rest, the Spurs further inflated that figure.
At least Timmy stayed busy:
Duncan aside, though, the Spurs are not messing around. You've been warned.
Blake Griffin Can Still Do This
Through the first 25 games of this season, just 12.7 percent of Blake Griffin's field goals had been dunks, according to Basketball-Reference.com—a career low that coincided with the development of his jumper and, maybe, the decline of his otherworldly athleticism.
His big jam against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday suggested the change in shot profiles is strictly a voluntary thing. His springs remain intact.
And that's a plus for the Los Angeles Clippers, who'll need everything Griffin can provide as they continue to search for reliable bench production. If head coach Doc Rivers can't find the right bodies or the right mix, L.A.'s fate will again rest in Griffin's overburdened (but still clearly capable) hands.
Stats accurate through games played Dec. 16.
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