Grizzlies(13-2) @ TrailBlazers(12-3)

[SD2042]

@

Who: Memphis Grizzlies(13-2) @ Portland TrailBlazers(12-3)
When: Friday, November 28th, 2014
Where: Moda Center in Portland, OR
Time: 9:30 PM CST
TV/Radio: SPSO, ESPN 92.9 FM
Season Series: First Meeting
Series Overall: Blazers lead 42-28
Team Trivia: Grizzlies PF Zach Randolph was drafted by the Blazers in 2001 and played with the team until 2007 when he was traded to the Knicks. Blazers SG Will Barton played his collegiate career at the University of Memphis.












































GrizzGirls








Moda Center







Grizzlies Starters





TrailBlazers Starters

[SD2042]

So far this game has been back in forth in spite of the Grizz keep fighting back to keep the lead from being taken from them.

[Zordor]

Wesley Matthews putting up some points, nice win for memphis though.

In other news, how bout those rebounds by Magic Mike Conley, the man needs to get a triple double

Edit: Y'all know the above name was a joke, let's please keep his current nickname of MC^2 its much better haha

[Zordor]

Memphis has this one in the bag I think, still want to see conley get that triple double though, get some of that recognition he deserves

[PDXKnight]

Good game guys. The Grizz just have our number.

[Zordor]

That was a good game, glad to see Conley atleast get the double double, too bad he couldnt get that last assist for the triple double but he played a great game! So did Gasol and as always Randolph, good team effort by our core

Edit:
And Gasol got 9 assists, you don't see many playmaking bigmen, this is another reason why Gasol is so valuable

[jman3134]

Great combination of inside outside game. Conley was active dishing the ball inside and Marc was strong throughout. Zach needs to hit his foul shots - we could have easily kept them in the game shooting 50% at the line for a while.

I still find it concerning that we put in our backups against opposing team's starters in the early fourth quarter. The Blazers really cut the margin, but couldn't come all the way back, as they missed some open shots late. It was their game to lose imo.

[SD2042]

Great combination of inside outside game. Conley was active dishing the ball inside and Marc was strong throughout. Zach needs to hit his foul shots - we could have easily kept them in the game shooting 50% at the line for a while.

I still find it concerning that we put in our backups against opposing team's starters in the early fourth quarter. The Blazers really cut the margin, but couldn't come all the way back, as they missed some open shots late. It was their game to lose imo.

This goes back to a point I made back in the earlier games this month about the need to acquire a scorer who can make buckets in a hurry from the bench. It seems like when the bench get in the game together, there is no ball movement, and no reliable scorer to make things happen, and the defense is insufficient to keep from losing big leads vs. opponents.

[Zordor]

Great combination of inside outside game. Conley was active dishing the ball inside and Marc was strong throughout. Zach needs to hit his foul shots - we could have easily kept them in the game shooting 50% at the line for a while.

I still find it concerning that we put in our backups against opposing team's starters in the early fourth quarter. The Blazers really cut the margin, but couldn't come all the way back, as they missed some open shots late. It was their game to lose imo.

This goes back to a point I made back in the earlier games this month about the need to acquire a scorer who can make buckets in a hurry from the bench. It seems like when the bench get in the game together, there is no ball movement, and no reliable scorer to make things happen, and the defense is insufficient to keep from losing big leads vs. opponents.

I think if they played Adams or gave Carter more minutes (imo at the point guard, he has the ball handling ability) we would see more ball movement and scoring out of them, but I think we are overusing Q-pon right now imo, he is coming back playing a lot better ball than he was earlier in the season, especially just in aggressiveness, but I dont think he or carter are our answer for 6th man, and i love carter, but it might be worth trading him / adams to get us a scoring and playmaking 6th man and also so carter can actually get ample minutes on a team that doesnt have a log jam of players all about his skill level

[gino_giode]

Is the rest of Carter's contract non/partially guaranteed? At the least you guys should get a disabled player exemption. Outside of the miracle Kings comeback, he has been scorching trash. At 4 million per it's very disappointing. It's amazing how good the Grizzly are doing without a stable bench unit.

[jman3134]

You need to rewatch some of our games. The bench is very stable. What you are seeing if you watched the last couple of games is that our coach rotates the bench unit in for the first half of the fourth quarter vs. opposing team's starters. They have actually held their own in most games, but against the top of the west, we need to play bench against bench.

[Biddy77]

Wow...

Blazer fan here. Still suffering from a bit of loss static after watching that one. A few things from a Blazer fan's perspective:

- the Griz defensive style is *dependable*. It's not the George Karl, swarming pressure, or the gimmicky Byron Scott side-trapping kind of D. The Griz play defense that *will* yield consistent, math based results. They pressure just enough to be constantly unsettling, and are nearly always around when the shot goes up. The Blazers' ball movement didn't produce as many wide open looks as we're used to getting, and we typically get another 3-5 easy buckets on back door plays that just weren't there against the Grizzlies. Very impressive awareness and defensive communication.

- from the opposition perspective, it was obvious that the Griz were pushing touches and shots to Gasol, but everything else felt very in-the-flow. It didn't feel like Conley or ZBo were shooting as much as they did, which is perfect. They picked spots well.

- some decent bench contributions in spurts. Udrih had a nice little stretch that he probably should have stopped a couple plays earlier. Koufas and Leuer had a nice little stretch. The odd thing was that it felt like the reserves each had a couple impact plays and then just sort of tapped out.


I came away from the game feeling like the Grizzlies are clearly a better team than the Blazers, specifically because of that D. The team looks solid and cohesive offensively, but special on defense in a way that is very playoff ready.

[dark-child]

Great Victory, they really showed a lot of character in this one.