You Know What Changed: Grizzlies Week in Review and Three Takeaways

The Memphis Grizzlies went 3-1 this past week, concluding the weekend with a thrilling comeback win against the Boston Celtics. Zach Randolph carried the Grizzlies for most of a four-game span that also included some of the finest play of the season from defensive bulwark Tony Allen.

We got everything you need to know from the past week of Grizzlies games and news in the latest installment of our Week In Review and Three Takeaways. Scroll on for game recaps, analysis, highlights, recent transactions, injury updates, and more.

January 4 Grizzlies vs Portland Trail Blazers

The week got off to a great start for Zach Randolph and company as the power forward lead Memphis to a 91-78 thrashing of his former team. Randolph’s 26 points lead the Grizzlies, and Z Bo also pulled down a season-high 18 rebounds. While you should always take a player’s +/- rating with a grain of salt due to the many variables related to the other nine guys on the court at a given time, it’s worth noting that Randolph’s final stat line included an eye-catching +24 for the game.

Courtney Lee added 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting, and aside from Randolph and Lee, everyone else in a Memphis jersey played mediocre ball. Marc Gasol and Mike Conley both struggled, combining for only 16 points on 6-of-25 shooting. Gasol also committed four turnovers.

You can view our recap here, and highlights from Z Bo’s big game here.

January 6 Grizzlies vs Oklahoma City Thunder

As discussed in our game recap, the Grizzlies continued a negative trend for the season: an inability to compete against elite teams. Once again, the Grizzlies were shellacked by a top-tier team, this time falling to the Thunder 112-94. The Thunder dominated throughout, thanks in no small part to Kevin Durant’s 26-points. The Grizzlies’ vaunted frontcourt also allowed KD to grab a season high 17 rebounds. Marc Gasol looked out of sorts and only scored 8 points on an icy cold 2-for-11 from the field.

Starting in place of the injured Mike Conley, Courtney Lee suffered an injury that forced him to leave the game early in the third quarter.

The only positives in this one came from Mario Chalmers and Tony Allen. Chalmers was the obvious bright spot, nearly amassing a triple-double with his 23 points, eight rebounds, and nine assists, all team-highs for the Grizz. And though it may go overlooked in a bad loss marred by an overall poor defense of Durant, Memphis disrupted Durant in the first half and limited him to 2-of-10 shooting, mainly because of the efforts of Allen.

January 8 Grizzlies vs Denver Nuggets

Following the Grizzlies’ 91-84 win over the Nuggets, we detailed how this game hearkened back to the heyday of Grit ‘n’ Grind basketball. It was a fun game, probably only for Grizzlies fans though, as the Grizzlies found a way to dig out the win despite a so-so shooting night.

Zach Randolph shined, leading the Grizzlies with his 24 points. Following a confrontation with Jusuf Nurkic, Memphis guard Mario Chalmers got the last laugh with two huge three-point bombs that put the game out of reach. Jeff Green also hit some clutch second-half shots from beyond the arc, and fellow wing player Matt Barnes had a solid night with 15 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

While an enjoyable and entertaining win, there were a couple caveats to this one. First, the Nuggets are not a real title contender and they, like the Grizzlies, were not at full strength. Second, while several Grizzlies played well, Marc Gasol struggled to hit shots for a third straight game. Marc Gasol is easily one of the most talented and versatile scorers to ever play for the Grizzlies, and Memphis needs more from their All-NBA center in order to make a push for a better playoff seed.

January 10 Grizzlies vs Boston Celtics

This game was an amazing come-from-behind victory. Memphis stormed back and erased Boston’s huge lead, and managed to hang on for a 101-98 win. Every word written about the win over the Nuggets being a revival of Grit ‘n’ Grind applied tenfold to this game.

Zach Randolph came up big again and Tony Allen played better than he has all season. This game had it all, including monster dunks from Tony Allen,  and a classic “½ man ½ amazing” dunk from Vince Carter. Allen and Carter’s back-to-back jams breathed new life into the game and helped energize the Memphis comeback.

Tony Allen made plays all over the court. He beat the shot-clock by hitting a deep three pointer, he had a fierce tip slam off of a Marc Gasol miss, he made steals on defense, he finished fastbreaks with exclamation-mark dunks.

TA and Vince Carter throwing down back-to-back:

Marc Gasol nearly got called for traveling with the game on the line, twice, and the Grizzlies nearly gave up a game-tying three-pointer as time expired, but the Grizzlies won. They came roaring back from a 21-point deficit and prevailed.

Injury Report

Starting point guard Mike Conley did not play this week due to an achilles injury, and starting shooting guard Courtney Lee missed most of this week’s action due to the hip injury he sustained during Wednesday’s loss in Oklahoma City. Guard Jordan Adams has missed most of the season due to knee problems, and it was reported this past week that Adams will undergo arthroscopic surgery. No timetable is set for Adams’ return.

Roster Activity: Who got cut,  who got signed, and who got called up

Needing depth at the guard position, especially at point guard, the Grizzlies waived Ryan Hollins in order to clear a roster spot for Elliot Williams. The Grizzlies signed Williams to a 10-day contract, and could possibly sign him to two more such contracts before the NBA requires teams to offer a longer deal.

The Grizzlies recalled Jame Ennis and Jarrell Martin from the Iowa Energy on January 8th.

Three Takeaways

1. Zach Randolph can (still) ball

The 34-year-old’s game has some durability to it. Coming off the bench, Randolph played his heart out and was easily the MVP of the week for the Grizzlies. In the Grizzlies’ three most recent wins, Randolph has elevated the team with scoring totals of 24, 26, and 25 points respectively, and has been a beast on the boards. I can’t overstate how great he has been, stepping up while two of the Grizzlies’ best offensive options were sidelined and while his frontcourt-mate Marc Gasol spent much of the week trying to battle through a severe shooting slump.

1. The only thing better than a win is a candid Tony Allen interview after a win

This isn’t a new takeaway, but it was nice to be reminded of this again. In Rob Fischer’s post-game interview with Allen, Fischer brought up how the Grizzlies had been down 21 points in the 3rd quarter, and asked Allen “what changed?”

The Grindfather exclaimed “You know what changed,” and was practically giddy as he discussed how the defense responded and won the game.  

He spoke openly about how he has solved his fastbreak layup take-off problems, explaining that thanks to his strength-and-conditioning training, he can simply dunk it as hard as humanly possible every time and not worry about trying to make layups or risk hurting himself. Tony was great this week, and the Grizzlies are a better team when he gets to play his game.    

1. Marc Gasol will have a huge scoring outburst in the near future

Gasol had a tough go of it this past week, particularly on offense. Here are Gasol’s shooting percentages from the past four games: 25 percent against Portland, 18 percent against Oklahoma City, 29 percent against Denver, 29 percent against Boston. Throughout the slump, he has still managed to find ways to help his team win, and he is far too gifted a scorer to keep struggling to this extent. Expect Gasol to score somewhere in the 25 to 30 point range sometime in the next few games.

More from Beale Street Bears

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• Grizzlies star Jaren Jackson Jr. put on blast following FIBA elimination
• Ex-Grizzlies guard signs with title favorite, joins forces with 6-time All-Star

And One

Late in Sunday night’s game versus Boston, Celtics guard Marcus Smart drove to the hoop to attempt an off-balance layup at the rim. Matt Barnes, Tony Allen, and Jeff Green all converged in mid-air to contest the shot. Rather than trying to pass out of it, Smart delayed the release with Allen and Green defending, then Matt Barnes came in and swatted the shot with Mutombo-esque authority. The triple-block was a memorable moment in the win over the Celtics, and it may also have brought balance to the Memphis Basketball universe.

“Hoop City” has been impressing the rest of the basketball world for quite some time, from the Grizzlies and Tigers at FedExForum, to the summer pro-am games of the Bluff City Classic, all the way down to the young prep teams electrifying high school gymnasiums throughout the Greater Memphis area. Back in 2007, in a varsity game between top-ranked Hamilton High School and fifth-ranked Kingsbury High, a four-on-one fast break ended in spectacular fashion.

With three teammates and no defenders trailing him on the break, a Hamilton ball-handler raced down court and threw an alley-oop lob off the glass. All three teammates trailing the play simultaneously went up to converge on the ball in mid-air, and altogether slammed home an incredible alley-oop triple-dunk, shattering the backboard. The crowd lost it, and after the excitement died down enough for the PA speaker to be heard, the announcer stated “there will be a delay of game.”

When Matt Barnes, Tony Allen, and Jeff Green made that emphatic triple-block, they balanced the Hoop City universe by providing a defensive equivalent of the legendary “triple dunk” of ‘07.

The only footage of the play I was able to find is from a nine-year-old youtube video that appears to have been shot on a low quality flip-phone video-recorder, but it’s enough to see what happened and it behooves you to watch it in order to appease the Basketball Gods.