Memphis vs. Utah

[jman3134]

Game thread.

Who do you all think is going to come to play tomorrow?

[vanjulio]

Rudy Gay because this is his team now. We need OJ and Tony Allen to step up. We need ZBO to step down. Look for the pass. Rudy has to get more aggressive on offense tho too

[ThreeYearPlan]

Rudy's been awful since the Heat game

[mid-post]

Rudy's been awful since the Heat game

Yup. He's playing like complete ass in the sense that he's forcing shots, turning it over and not really doing much on defense either. For awhile he was playing a really nice brand of complete basketball. Not so much these days.
I really don't get this team at all. It's basically the exact same squad as last year, but for whatever reason, it looks like they're all out there playing joyless,"gotta get mine" basketball. It's really ugly and boring to watch. Don't get me wrong, the Jazz are the better team. But the close losses with bad possessions down the stretch (including losses to some bad teams) are infuriating.
I hope things turn around quickly because I'm not sure how much of this bullsh*t I can take. I mean I have to get up early to work in the morning and this is cutting into my sleep time. I'm going to bed angry. I'm having bad dreams.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aST8oIaxsc[/youtube]
This isn't working for me Grizzlies. Get your f*cking act together please.

[I Am Awesome-O]

Zach Randolph is reverting back to his old form.

[mid-post]

Zach Randolph is reverting to his old form.

I think he's killing the ball movement quite a bit; for awhile this season they were doing a good job of reversing the ball and finding the open man. Now it seems like everyone's just playing iso-ball. It is so incredibly boring to watch. I'm not sure Zach's completely to blame, but it sure seems like he's forcing a lot of bad shots (or throwing the ball at the rim hoping to get the offensive rebound or foul). And unfortunately it's the same thing with Rudy recently.
And oh yeah, Zach's defense is just...bad. DA should be getting more minutes.

[ThreeYearPlan]

At least people should stop saying that Memphis picked Thabeet over Evans, Curry and Jennings in the 09 Draft since Conley is better than Jennings

[tatertotsnjuice]

[dark-child]

I don't know why but for whatever reason Rudy Gay acts like he HATES OJ Mayo. He might as well not be on the court when Rudy is in there as he refuses to pass him the ball. A lot of Rudy's forced shots are when OJ is in the game and he refuses to reverse the ball to the other side. Why the coaching staff will not say something about this is maddening.

Zach has turned the clock back to 2003 - 2008.

Mike Conley Jr. should have the green light for the first three quarters only and only if no human is within 3 feet of him.

[vanjulio]

they should go after Iguodala. they dont' have anything to lose.

we're playing .400 ball which is not good enough to be a factor.

[jman3134]

Everyone pretty much knows that Zach is going to look to score when he receives it in the post. And, much of the time, I do not think there is much of a pass to be made. (aside from kicking it back outside, which he should do more often) But, I do not see Randolph as the main problem. OJ Mayo has regressed considerably from a year ago. Gasol looks like a shadow of his former self on both ends of the floor. And, then you have Zach displaying his usual tendencies.

[vanjulio]

TeamUSA this summer was great for Rudy... but Marc I know had to shoulder a lot of the load for a very disappointing Spainish team. He might have worn himself out but then again, Luis Scola is much older and had a similar role with Argentina - and hasn't seemed to slow him down a bit

[jman3134]

Yeah, I suspect it's more ankle related, but he should be back to normal at this stage.