Well, they are catching the Bulls tomorrow on the 2nd game of a back to back with no Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose, or Taj Gibson. If the Grizz are at full strength after a day of rest, there is really no reason for them not to win that game.

I know this isn't the "right" place for this, but at all the Grizzlies games, they do a salute to military where they honor some local serviceman/woman from the area who serves (and I'm sure most teams do).

However at the Lakers game, they did an WW2/Iwo Jima vet instead named Jimmy Keep (who happens to be returning to Iwo Jima pretty soon, although I'm not sure he's all that excited about it). He's 88. I looked up a story on him in the paper, and like many other WW2 guys, he sounds pretty amazingly brave.

Here he is helping an officer out, and he said he remembers it because he remembers giving the officer an earful: "Because he was crying like a baby, saying he was scarred for life. I said, 'You're getting off this rock. I'll trade places with you.'"




Some other nuggets from a story in Commercial Appeal

"It was a slaughter ...," Keep said of the legendary five-week World War II battle that began Feb. 19, 1945, and claimed the lives of nearly 7,000 Marines. "It was a twenty-four-seven situation of kill or be killed."
...
It was on Saipan that Keep manned a 50-caliber machine gun during one of the infamous banzai charges in which Japanese soldiers threw themselves at Marine lines in human-wave assaults. "It was the bloodiest thing you ever saw," he said. "The damn fools wouldn't quit coming."Afterward, a "spit-and-polish" lieutenant walked by and congratulated Keep because his "pile of bodies was bigger" than those of the other Marine defenders. The compliment enraged Keep."I was going to kill that son of a *****. I could still hear them (the Japanese) scream. I could hear myself scream. Something in me snapped."As the assault on Iwo Jima began, Keep and Cirulla were ordered to drive an amphibious tank across the narrow neck of the island below Mount Suribachi to scout the beach on the opposite shore. But an enemy shell disabled the vehicle, forcing the two to dash across the island on foot."Every Japanese soldier ever born was shooting at us," Keep said.Somehow, neither man was hit. From that point on, other Marines called them "rain-walkers" a name suggesting that if they could run through intense enemy fire without getting hit, surely they could walk through rain without getting wet.
"What was so bad about Iwo is that, early on, Marines would fall dead from gunshot wounds, and no one knew where it was coming from," Keep said."Turns out, there were tunnels under there huge tunnels, you could drive a car through them."As recon men, Keep and Cirulla were among those charged with the task of clearing the tunnels. Every other day for about two weeks, they descended into the darkness to flush out the enemy.

The close-quarter fighting was beyond terrifying. Once, when Keep and Cirulla neared a corner in a tunnel, they knew there were many Japanese troops on the other side they could smell them. "I imagine they could smell us, too," Keep said.The two Marines lobbed grenades, ricocheting them off the tunnel walls. The Japanese entire squad of 15 or so men responded by charging at Keep and Cirulla, only to be mowed down.



He's a Zach Randolph fan..."They're not afraid to bust your ass to get to the basket, especially (Zach) Randolph. Randolph's my man."



And Zach calls him Mr. Keep.


----now back to your regularly scheduled Grizzlies thread----

One of my buddies that goes to school in Chicago is going to the game tonight. I'm jealous as hell.

Unsurprisingly, it is shaping up to be a one possession game.

Yeah, so far, the Grizz not able to take advantage of a depleted Chicago roster. And the missed layup plague continues to infect the Grizz as they've missed at least 4 layups tonight at the rim.

Halftime: Grizz 41, Bulls 39

Unbelievable to me that the Grizz aren't winning by 12-15 points. Chicago looks to me like they have dead legs, a lot of their shots are hitting front iron. But the Grizz missed a bunch of layups, have not capitalized on Bulls turnovers, have not shot that well on open looks, and just looks like they are ****ing around out there.

It's a little bit like the Pelican game. They should be up more, and hopefully this won't bite them in the end.

Really kind of a boring game.

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Really kind of a boring game

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Yep. Not really even any energy in the building there.

Grizz went up by 11 but that's been cut now to 4.

But Big Spain is playing lights out this quarter and carrying the team, frustrating his big bro in the process...

73-65 Grizz after 3.

Gasol Brothers battle seems a little testy tonight. Pau has hit the deck several times.

And a 13 point 4th Q lead evaporates in about a 2-3 minute stretch and now the building is into the game.

Its uncanny the way the Grizz must play a nailbiter game.

Bulls now up 4 after a barrage of 3 pointers. Who is covering the ****ing perimeter?

And not sure I've ever seen this before: Bulls get called for 6 men on the floor. Technicial FT and ball awarded to Grizz.

Game Memphis.

101-91 Final.

Good job, Thibs on putting 6 guys on the floor after a timeout.
Tech free throw and ball, a key point in 4th.

Hope they enjoy tonight, but now in the next 3 weeks they will have 12 games, including 4 B2B.

@Boston starts the B2Bs I believe they have Boston, then Washington.

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Good job, Thibs on putting 6 guys on the floor after a timeout.
Tech free throw and ball, a key point in 4th.

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I think it was 2-3 seasons ago during a dead ball situation that they had all 5 guys on the court of play and no one to inbound the ball.

Ugly game so far gets uglier as Conley goes down in the 3rd Q with an apparent ankle injury. He was writhing on the floor, hopefully its not too severe.

Grizz turnover prone tonight.

I forgot that they had a game tonight.

Conley back in, good to see.

Grizz with 20 turnovers tonight so far with 8:41 in the 4th. Still a tie game 70-70

Grizz lose. Another road loss against a sub .500 team. 21 turnovers. And give up 31 points in the 4th Q. Grizz should have dominated this game inside and didn't consistently.

Last minute: Courtney Lee fouls a guy at the basket on an inbounds play and gives up the hoop to allow the lead. Then the Grizz miss on the other end and Gasol inexplicably fouls an 82% FT shooter 90 feet from the basket with 39 seconds left and only down 1. Just stupid play in the last minute.

And against the worst shot blocking team in the league, Gasol has a whopping 9 points. He should have dominated this game and was really a non-factor.

Also, another slow start. WTF is with the slow starts by this team since the All Star break?

Can't figure this team out right now. They are lacking something. And just seems like are on the edge of slipping down the playoff standings with losses like they've had. They seem to have more difficulty with teams below .500.

Conley needs rest and is beat up.

Jeff green is making prince look valuable and sucks on defense

Green is definitely a liability on defense. and he's inconsistent offensively with his shot.

Conley out tonight vs. Wizards due to the ankle...Joerger is sitting Randolph, Gasol, and Tony Allen I guess for rest.

Finally get a game on national broadcast TNT and Joerger sits half the team...

We're hanging tough now, tie game with 5:00 left in the half. But this seems like Joerger is just giving a game away sitting all these guys at once. I don't understand that unless he's trying to send a message of some sort (but Tony Allen played a great game last night and was all hustle)

Wizards end half on a 25-6 run to take a 13 point lead into halftime.

to this point Wizards outscoring Grizz 21-1 in fast break points...

Game essentially over. 20 point lead by the Wizards with 4:00 left in the game.

I hope Joerger gets what he wanted out of this move tonight and the Grizz go on some type of winning streak with a well rested group. Because a 20+ point demoralizing beatdown and essentially giving away a game in a tight West race is baffling to me. This isn't Popovich's Spurs here who are way out in front of the division.

I get sitting them. It's too bad it is on national TV, but screw the NBA for giving any team 22 games in 38 days with 16 of those games coming in B2B games.

There was plenty of confirmation tonight there isn't a lot of sharpshooters seating on the bench.

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There was plenty of confirmation tonight there isn't a lot of sharpshooters seating on the bench.

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And not a lot of ball handling or defense either. Lot of empty possessions and turnovers tonight leading to run outs by the Wizards.

I didn't realize the schedule was that brutal with B2Bs. I guess I can understand him sitting them for a night here or there, just surprised he did it all at once like that.

It is so odd that the Rockets and Grizzlies are in the middle of this mini-race for 2nd place, and are both playing disappointing, lethargic ball.

I don't know if the playoff race is taking a strong emotional toll on both teams, and Dallas for that matter, but neither would beat the Spurs right now.

When asked about going back to TA in the starting lineup and sitting Jeff Green, Joerger had a real interesting reply, "Jeff Green is the least of our problems. Most of the people on the inside know what it is. It's not Jeff Green"

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When asked about going back to TA in the starting lineup and sitting Jeff Green, Joerger had a real interesting reply, "Jeff Green is the least of our problems. Most of the people on the inside know what it is. It's not Jeff Green"

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Wonder what that means? Sounds like a possible chemistry issue or locker room issue?