Game 36: Memphis Grizzlies (13-22) @ Los Angeles Clippers (25-11) - 3:30 PM ET

[ducler]

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[oligo]

J.J.J. all night long, baby!

[oligo]

Make it 140pt game, baby!

[VCfor3]

Ja was able to avoid bad turnovers, Crowder got hot, Tyus with a good game, JJJ with the awesome defense and offense (when they finally fed him), and Clarke didn't let early shooting woes bother him later in the game.

Heck of a game for our team!

[oligo]

Damn, I so enjoyed watching that game. I'm a neutral NBA fan, observing multiple teams.

But boy Grizzlies lack hight under the rim. You kinda see as soon as Valenciunas picked that 5th foul, REBs have fallen off a cliff.

[VCfor3]

Damn, I so enjoyed watching that game. I'm a neutral NBA fan, observing multiple teams.

But boy Grizzlies lack hight under the rim. You kinda see as soon as Valenciunas picked that 5th foul, REBs have fallen off a cliff.

Yeah we need a backup C with size. Going into this season I think the focus wasn't on wins though so we just kinda let that hole remain. It'll be interesting to see how they address that this offseason or if the FO will try to low-key tank if the pick conveys this year. My gut says that we will take a flyer on a big with the earliest 2nd round pick we own and use them as our backup C.

[oligo]

Damn, it's just so hard to count on the Draft night these days. New odds made it difficult.
As a rule, drafted bigs are not NBA ready. You need to invest a ton of time and patience to develop them.
I would rather try to acquire some big in FA.

I would try to sign Alex Len on some long-term team-friendly deal. Been watching this guy his whole career. He's been benched a lot in PHX. For my taste, he was benched too much time because Suns had too many bigs that were eating minutes to each other and that slowed down his development. He somehow managed to improve his game a lot in his first season with ATL, but later his development stopped. I think he's still worth a try.

[VCfor3]

I'm good with Alex Len and a lot would depend on whether or not we convey. If we do, getting a big in the draft and letting them develop would cost us wins next season when we are probably hoping for a lottery pick. Then if they develop we would have a young big that fits our timeline. If we don't convey, then getting a quality vet as a backup center would be a much more pressing issue since our team would likely be trying for a playoff push.

[Whole Truth]

Ja was able to avoid bad turnovers, Crowder got hot, Tyus with a good game, JJJ with the awesome defense and offense (when they finally fed him), and Clarke didn't let early shooting woes bother him later in the game.

Heck of a game for our team!

That's what I'm talking bout, from start to finish. This game shows why them letting up against the Kings in the 2nd was so infuriating. Jenkins & the players rectified that nicely.

What's impressive is the team still had some questionable shot selection (Brooks) & probably could have put 150+pts on the board.

Scored 104 pts by the end of the 3rd quarter against what is supposed to be a good defensive team. Clippers/Kawahi's 4th quarter push ended with Memphis responding with 36 & the best part was that it was Ja & Jaren responding. Loved that Jaren long distance 3pt dagger up 20+....

Jaren & Clarke continue to flash their defensive potential as a pairing. Clarke & Melton's defense with Jonas also opened up that late 3rd Q 25pt lead.

Memphis being #1 in paint points had the Clippers start the game out with a plan of going under the screen, Jonas had 0 points but Memphis were making their 3's. When they adjusted in the 2nd half, Memphis & Jonas punished them in the paint.

This win IMO, makes the Kings loss look even worse, they more often than not are beating themselves.. Kings should have lost that game by the half. Nice to see Morant do a better job of taking care of the ball in this one & we see the difference it makes.

[Whole Truth]

Damn, I so enjoyed watching that game. I'm a neutral NBA fan, observing multiple teams.

But boy Grizzlies lack hight under the rim. You kinda see as soon as Valenciunas picked that 5th foul, REBs have fallen off a cliff.

This has cost Memphis several games to date, one of the reasons I was for retaining Noah. The Kings comeback yesterday started when Memphis fielded a front court of Clarke/Anderson/Hill that got abused in the paint. When that unit was pulled, Kings had already sliced a 20pt lead to single digits.

[Whole Truth]

Talking about a team being as good as it's weakest link this game embodied that. Memphis won by 140 pts with Harrel, Kawhi & Lou having good to great games, while on the other foot, can't really think of a Memphis player that had a bad showing??..

This is why taking care of the ball, good shot selection & attention to detail is so important. One unforced TO is a potential 6 pt swing when games are often lost in single digits. A couple unforced TO's, a couple of poor decisions with the ball/shooting is a potential 24pt swing & how Memphis coughed up their 2nd quarter 20pt lead to the Kings.

I went & read the Clippers game thread & they're touching on this point, one poster mentions how bad Harkless has been for them only scoring 3 times in low double digits in his last 10-15 games. Which brings me to, If Memphis have any intent on trading either Iggy or Crowder to them, make sure & get back a decent asset. Clippers really need to improve the quality of heir depth.

[SD2042]

Talking about a team being as good as it's weakest link this game embodied that. Memphis won by 140 pts with Harrel, Kawhi & Lou having good to great games, while on the other foot, can't really think of a Memphis player that had a bad showing??..

This is why taking care of the ball, good shot selection & attention to detail is so important. One unforced TO is a potential 6 pt swing when games are often lost in single digits. A couple unforced TO's, a couple of poor decisions with the ball/shooting is a potential 24pt swing & how Memphis coughed up their 2nd quarter 20pt lead to the Kings.

I went & read the Clippers game thread & they're touching on this point, one poster mentions how bad Harkless has been for them only scoring 3 times in low double digits in his last 10-15 games. Which brings me to, If Memphis have any intent on trading either Iggy or Crowder to them, make sure & get back a decent asset. Clippers really need to improve the quality of heir depth.

Harkless's biggest problem has reminded me of how Stromile Swift used to play when he was a Grizzly. He has the talent to be in the league. However, his inconsistencies and his laziness keeps him from being very reliable in the long run. It would not surprise me if Harkless finds himself on the another team by next month.

The Clippers overall, have a new team that has yet to gell together due to load management and injuries to key players this season. Although they are a solid team. They can't afford to have nights like this game where they assume they are going to win against a low team.

Remember the last matchup between these two teams, the Grizzlies could've easily won had Jenkins did not take Valanciunas out when he was on the verge of his career night in points. Valanciunas owned the paint that game in-spite of the loss.

Overall, the Grizzlies played very well in this game and run shotgun over the Clippers in this one.

[Whole Truth]

Talking about a team being as good as it's weakest link this game embodied that. Memphis won by 140 pts with Harrel, Kawhi & Lou having good to great games, while on the other foot, can't really think of a Memphis player that had a bad showing??..

This is why taking care of the ball, good shot selection & attention to detail is so important. One unforced TO is a potential 6 pt swing when games are often lost in single digits. A couple unforced TO's, a couple of poor decisions with the ball/shooting is a potential 24pt swing & how Memphis coughed up their 2nd quarter 20pt lead to the Kings.

I went & read the Clippers game thread & they're touching on this point, one poster mentions how bad Harkless has been for them only scoring 3 times in low double digits in his last 10-15 games. Which brings me to, If Memphis have any intent on trading either Iggy or Crowder to them, make sure & get back a decent asset. Clippers really need to improve the quality of heir depth.

Harkless's biggest problem has reminded me of how Stromile Swift used to play when he was a Grizzly. He has the talent to be in the league. However, his inconsistencies and his laziness keeps him from being very reliable in the long run. It would not surprise me if Harkless finds himself on the another team by next month.

The Clippers overall, have a new team that has yet to gell together due to load management and injuries to key players this season. Although they are a solid team. They can't afford to have nights like this game where they assume they are going to win against a low team.

Remember the last matchup between these two teams, the Grizzlies could've easily won had Jenkins did not take Valanciunas out when he was on the verge of his career night in points. Valanciunas owned the paint that game in-spite of the loss.

Overall, the Grizzlies played very well in this game and run shotgun over the Clippers in this one.

Harkless for Iggy being 2 potential FA's, is Clippers trading inconsistency for consistency. I'd have to assume with no traction on a deal, they don't want to give up any additional assets for Iggy & need to get more desperate.

Their last match is why they game planned for Jonas in this one slipping under screens, successfully holding him to 0 first half points. It just so happens players who don't normally shoot the 3 ball well for Memphis had good nights & made them pay for it. Forcing the Clippers to change how they were defending in the 2nd half & once they did that, Memphis were able to go back to Jonas in the paint & continue to exploit them.

The Heat are not gelling & are a good defensive team... on the perimeter & with ball pressure but they too struggle to defend the post. Harrell is no exception & gelling is not why Clippers couldn't contain both Jonas & Memphis hot 3pt shooting. One of the reasons I like coach Malone, is he still values the post.

This was the pick your poison I was talking about in the offseason with Jonas/3J sharing the 5 spot, not making Jaren a full time 5 but the team has struggled to be consistent from 3. They could have probably used one more big body behind Jonas also but by now hopefully people see the worth of having that quality depth & versatility at PF/C rotation. I would have liked to have Noah in the mix but understand the direction the team wanted. Maybe now that Memphis are a half game out of the playoffs, they can still sign him by opening a roster spot. Bruno is barely playing, if at all. I can't imagine Noah not being effective in spot minutes where Grizz have lost a few games well as recently as the Kings 2nd Q meltdown where Clarke, Anderson, Hill made up the undersized front court the Kings abused.

[VCfor3]

Noah had an injury of some sort this offseason. That was why he wasn't signed. Maybe he has recovered now and would be able to be a decent backup guy.

[Whole Truth]

I saw this going through a ringer trade article.

The Grizz are 10-9 with a top-10 offense since December 1 and sit just a game out of the eighth seed while still feeding a steady diet of developmental minutes to nearly all their young pieces. They’re basically playing with house money right now.

That's progress, credit Jenkins & the players.

I'd hate to be OKC. They are being powered by an ageing, overpaid star & an impending FA veteran small forward. They're going to regret it. When all parties set sail, OKC is going to find their boat has a hole in it.

[SD2042]

I saw this going through a ringer trade article.

The Grizz are 10-9 with a top-10 offense since December 1 and sit just a game out of the eighth seed while still feeding a steady diet of developmental minutes to nearly all their young pieces. They’re basically playing with house money right now.

That's progress, credit Jenkins & the players.

I'd hate to be OKC. They are being powered by an ageing, overpaid star & an impending FA veteran small forward. They're going to regret it. When all parties set sail, OKC is going to find their boat has a hole in it.

It's the curse of being stuck between a semi-rebuilding team and potential mediocrity and screwing up your chance at getting a higher draft pick. I have to admit it's been a strange season for the bottom half of the Western Conference. Teams you think are rebuilding are fighting or appearing to be in the race for a playoff spot. Teams that normally be in the playoff race are struggling to win games and are fighting to keep their chances alive.