RealGM

vs.

Who: Memphis Grizzlies(39-19) vs. Portland Trailblazers(27-31)
When: March 5th 2013
Where: FedEx Forum in Memphis,TN
Time: 7:00 PM CST
Season Series: Blazers lead 1-0
Series Overall: Blazers lead 41-23
TV: SpSo ESPN/ESPN 92.9
Team Trivia: Blazers PG Eliot Williams played his collegiate career at the University of Memphis.






The Grindhouse













Grizzlies Celeb of the Game

Emanuelle Vaugier











Grizzlies Starters






Blazers Starters

This trip home to the Fedex forum should be a good one. We need Conley to have a big game and shut down Lillard. That's the key in my mind.

jman3134 wrote:This trip home to the Fedex forum should be a good one. We need Conley to have a big game and shut down Lillard. That's the key in my mind.

I'd like to see Wroten play a little tonight so we can have some size on Lillard and see if that slows him down. We could put Allen on him but I don't like the idea of Conley guarding Matthews.

jman3134 wrote:This trip home to the Fedex forum should be a good one. We need Conley to have a big game and shut down Lillard. That's the key in my mind.

To me, the last game between these teams was decided by Tony Allen sagging off of Matthews to provide help defense - Matthews burned him with outside shooting nearly every time.

With that said, Conley does need to step up, and whoever plays at the four (Davis if no Zbo or Arthur) needs to keep Hickson in check as well.

Man don't forget about Will Barton on the Tigers. And Victor Claver on Team Spain with Marc Gasol. Who got to beat the bejesus out of Batum and his frogs this summer.

Aldridge and Pittman were both C at Texas. But that's ALL they have in common.

I love these old Pacific Northwest rivalries. Vancouver > Portland

When we play Portland again on the 12th, I'll throw in the Will Barton trivia in.

As for tonight's game, maybe TA will get his chance on shutting down Wesley Matthews after what TA said, Matthews got the better of him in the last matchup.

Also hopefully Zbo will be back in the lineup tonight and DA still coping from the accident from the Orlando game.

Don't forget, while Jason Levien has committed to not trading Zbo in season, any Ed Davis shine will likely have them revisiting the issue during the off season.

1ST quarter - YIKES

all you need to know is that it seems with ZBO out the offense went thru Tony Allen or at least in his mind it did.

Turning away from the game as the Blazers have a ten point lead and the Grizz offense is unwatchable right now.

19-6 run to close the third. That three by Bayless to end the quarter is a HUGE boost.

Tight game in the past few minutes. Grizz finally finding their offense. They have to continue to limit the Blazers offense and build on theirs and get this win.

Great win with so many missing pieces.

That should say/mean something!

One helleva comeback. A well round effort to the Grizz in the second half fighting back from 17 down. They grind Portland's offense to a halt(11-39 overall, 3-13 from 3 pointers) The offense lead by the Beast and J.B. The defense was a team effort the rest of the way. Hard fought effort to win this game.

Grizzlies pick and roll defense was awful until late 3QT. I guessed it was good chance for Ed Davis to learn our help defense system. Grizzlies always has pick and roll defense problems especially 1st half and down stretch. I really hope Coach Lionel Hollins figure out our pick and roll defense problems soon as possible.

We have to start showing up for both halves of the game. Better teams will not let us sneak away with wins after no-showing for half of the game.

I loved how the team stepped up the defensive pressure in the fourth quarter when it counted. They really forced Portland into some difficult shots. It was a good win against a Blazers team that has a determined starting lineup that always plays hard. But Portland had no answers for the defensive rotations late in the game. Besides Bayless picking up the scoring drought I thought Tony Allen really inspired them on the defensive end.

I loved how the team stepped up the defensive pressure in the fourth quarter when it counted. They really forced Portland into some difficult shots. It was a good win against a Blazers team that has a determined starting lineup that always plays hard. But Portland had no answers for the defensive rotations late in the game. Besides Bayless picking up the scoring drought I thought Tony Allen really inspired them on the defensive end.

grizzlies50 wrote:Grizzlies pick and roll defense was awful until late 3QT. I guessed it was good chance for Ed Davis to learn our help defense system. Grizzlies always has pick and roll defense problems especially 1st half and down stretch. I really hope Coach Lionel Hollins figure out our pick and roll defense problems soon as possible.

It's personnel. Marc and Zach are great players but they're both big and have to expend a lot of energy to play aggressive defense on the perimeter. They know how to defend the play. But you only really see it when the game gets really tight and those guys are willing to execute hard-hedges and aggressive traps. Especially Marc who actually has a really good feel for how to cut off passing lanes and driving lanes in those situations.

The only thing I think Hollins could do is rest those guys a little more. Hell, I say limit them to about 30mpg the rest of the way. We do have by far the deepest frontcourt in the league (when healthy, anyway).

How has no one mentioned Mike Conley? His 20 pts were huge. Lillard came out hot, but Mike Conley really outplayed him in the 2nd half. I really think we have an elite PG; it's just that not a lot of people realize it because his impact is different than other guards and doesn't always show up in the stat sheet.

For instance, he only had 2 steals, but not all steals are created equal. When Jerryd Bayless made an out of control pass that was intercepted, and the Blazers began streaking down the court. Rather than run back on defense, Conley stopped near mid-court, and took the dribble away from the ball-handler, leading to an easy bucket the other way.


Aside from that play though, Bayless was huge. All his buckets came when we desperately needed them. You can argue if he doesn't hit that three at the end of the third then we lose.

I'm starting to like Bayless. I wasn't sold on him as a PG before. But i think it's clear he's capable. What he has to do is not worry about being Mike Conley the Sequel. He is a scorer. He should look to score with patient aggression.

Marc was solid, as always.