Joeger has really turned into a fine coach. He had a rough start and I was a little concerned with how he would do and his relationship with ownership. But damn if he hasn't really proven himself to be a good coach.

That was craptastic.

I feel like Memphis and Houston met before their game 1 and did the playground equivalent of, "If you don't try tonight, we won't try when we come down to Houston."

I've said it before, Ill say it again, I swear the Rockets v Grizzlies is always a bad game for one of the teams.


I feel like if they met in the playoffs, it would go 7 games, with all the games decided by about 18 points.

Marc Gasol has a right knee bone bruise. He will be listed as questionable for game Friday vs. San Antonio Spurs (per twitter)

Lol

Grizz struggles against the Spurs continue. Lost 15 of the last 17 including tonight's wire to wire victory by SA. Just can't figure them out and seems like every second chance opportunity the Spurs get whether its offensive rebound or a non-call by an official gets cashed in for a 3 pointer.

I will admit we were favored by the refs tonight.

I would be quite happy if the grizzlies could win one of the 3 December games vs the spurs.

I can almost guarantee pop will throw one of the games against yall considering how tough our schedule is

Missed the game on a flight home. How did they play Iowa?

Trevas, seemed like the typical Memphis/SA game of late. Spurs streak off to an early lead and keep the Grizz at bay on every run. Grizz couldn't get over the 6 point deficit hump. They'd cut into the lead then SA would rattle off a 3, then a Grizz miss on the other end, followed by another 3 or something like that to extend the lead back to 12 or 14. They cut it to about 5 points really late and Conley missed a wide open 3 chance to really end any real threat to get a late tie opportunity.

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Trevas, seemed like the typical Memphis/SA game of late. Spurs streak off to an early lead and keep the Grizz at bay on every run. Grizz couldn't get over the 6 point deficit hump. They'd cut into the lead then SA would rattle off a 3, then a Grizz miss on the other end, followed by another 3 or something like that to extend the lead back to 12 or 14. They cut it to about 5 points really late and Conley missed a wide open 3 chance to really end any real threat to get a late tie opportunity.

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Reading on Grizzlies sites that the refs were bad, but taking it with a grain of salt. What is your opinion on the officiating?

As a spurs fan, it was pretty biased but I still believe the outcome would have been similar

I only saw the second half. There were a couple pretty bad calls in San Antonio's favor, but Memphis got some back in the last two minutes when they were trying to make a comeback. Two no-calls when Duncan got pushed in the back on rebounds, a couple pretty weak foul calls, and Conley getting a shooting foul when he lost the ball prior to picking up his dribble.

As usual, I thought the game came down to Memphis not having enough depth. San Antonio did their thing, which is to bury you with an unmatched group of quality two-way players. Memphis still doesn't have a ton of scorers, so the Spurs can choose to leave certain players open. As good as Memphis's team defense is, it looks to me like the Spurs take advantage of a lack of foot speed at PF/C. Gasol and Randolph have to spend a lot of time out by the three point line where everything is spread farther apart and the SA guards and forwards are pretty nimble and crafty.

Bonner gives Randolph trouble on the offensive end because he draws him all the way out to the 3 point line and he doesn't like to cover out that far, plus it pulls him away from the basket and rebounding position.

The Grizz are deeper this year and I don't think this game was on their bench. Its more that it just seems every loose ball went SAs way and they made the Grizz pay for every one of them it seemed. Grizz also seem to have trouble when the Spurs swing the ball so quickly around the perimeter, catches them out of position and they nail a 3. But, the Spurs bench is still deeper with scoring options.

Trevas, there was some bad calls that went against the Grizz but it seemed like on every one, the Spurs just made them pay. There was a no-call late on a travel (maybe by Kawhi Leonard) and I think SA scored on that play.

I hope you Memphis fans will take this post in the spirit in which it is intended, which is to generate discussion about why the Spurs seem to have Memphis' number, not to trash talk or criticize your really good team.


Memphis doesn't have bad depth by normal standards, but look at advanced stats for the bench players for each team. The difference is stark. Memphis's starting unit is really good this year, which has let them spread minutes around over the course of the season. The minutes played distribution is not dramatically different between the teams over the course of the season.

Look at the minutes in a competitive game against the Spurs though. SA had one player with more than 30 minutes (Duncan at 36) while Memphis had four, three of whom played at least 38 minutes. Each team played 10 players. The standard deviation in minutes played was 0.58 for Memphis and 0.30 for SA. The Spurs were clustered relatively tightly around 24 minutes while Memphis had a much larger difference between the players who played the most and those who played the least.

That's partly why a lot of loose balls seem to go San Antonio's way; the players are fresher. It's also why when they do get a second chance, they are still flying around to their spots while the opposing defense is a step slow after having already exerted themselves on one defensive possession.

None of that is specific to Memphis though. I think to some extent, San Antonio is motivated to beat Memphis in the wake of that embarrassing loss in 2011. There's probably also some chance in there. SA could have easily lost quite a few of those games against Memphis. I don't think that they intentionally rebuilt their roster and philosophy to beat Memphis, but Memphis and San Antonio do the same things: gritty defense, sharing the ball, and strong analytics. SA just has more players that do it well (for now).

I was unable to watch much of the Spurs game. A friend of mine was found by his daughter, as he had died of a heart attack, probably about 80 minutes after he had emailed me saying he wasn't feeling well. This guy had a huge impact on our family for a lot of reason, but I can't get past the image of his daughter at the hospital...just emotionally crushed. The wife/mother died of cancer about 3-4 years ago.

I probably wrote that (and deleted much of it) more for my own therapy than anything else, but it does, in a pretty crappy way, remind me of what is important in life.



Sidenote: I did think the Grizzlies got the short end of a lot of calls, but I know I'm biased, and honestly, didn't watch it with much focus. Gasol's technical after the missed foul was bogus, but that is part of the game.

I don't want that last post to be the last on this page before the Heat game, so I'll address why I think the Spurs have the Grizzlies number. Part of it is that playoff loss in 2011, but that isn't all of it by any means. I think the Grizzlies philosophy of moving the ball and playing team first is built on the Spurs. Offensively, I don't see them as too similar, but the grizzlies constantly bring up the Spurs as to what they want to be as a team. Hopefully that means Gasol becomes like Duncan (and interestingly while few would mistake Zach Randolph as the David Robinson in any way, Zach has won the Robinson community assist reward several times).

To continue the analogy, Allen is similar to Bowen (Bowen much better outside shooter, Allen probably better slasher). Hollins tried to turn OJ Mayo into Manu. Jon Leuer plays the role of big white guy on the bench. Conley and Parker have some similarities as well.


Ultimately, I think the difference Kawhi and the general much higher reliability of outside shooting that the Spurs offer. Certainly depth matters because the Spurs just have so many more guys that can hit that outside shot..it seems like everyone but Duncan and Splitter (when healthy) can hit it. It opens up the offense so much more.

Baynes is shooting 100% from beyond the arc this year. Be afraid!

Gasol with 2 points and 6 rebounds.
Leuer with 20 and 12 and the best dunk of night.

Prince in smaller role has been relatively productive. He did the best job on Wade.

Did not see game, but Grizzlies get Mavs behind Gasol's 30 and Conley 22.

Plus I think Monta swung by his house and got a little Mrs. Ellis action to weaken his legs. He went 1-11 and 0-3 from 3.

Yup. Gasol and ZBo really crushed us(mavs fan) on the offensive boards. ZBo had a double double in the third quarter alone that was basically off of offensive boards. Gasol looks damn impressive.

Good game!

Overtime.

That was a foul on Gasol.

Carter.

2 OT.

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That was a foul on Gasol.

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Some bad calls down the stretch.


That 3 point foul call against Tony when he picked up the technical foul was easy that Neal kicked out his leg in live speed, but I don't know if they said he touched the official, that would be bad, but that call was horrible.

Vince Carter's 3 was huge.

That was an ugly game though.

Losing to the sixers.

This emote.

CONLEY

Conley and Marc have to make the All Star team.

That early comment that they didn't get to the hotel until 3:45 am was a bad foreshadowing of how they played their first 3.5 quarters. I'm not sure Tony Allen ever tuned in.

I've said it before, with the exception of the Rocket games, the Grizzlies seem to find it necessary to make every game close, even the lowly Sixers.

Conley was huge to tie the game.
Hopefully they are looking ahead to Tuesday's game with the Warriors.