Grind City has also been Clutch City this season, which has made for plenty of exciting games and a plethora of gnawed fingernails for fans. Can the Memphis Grizzlies expect to continue to grinding out wins by such narrow margins?
In basketball, wins are all that matter. There are is no advantage given for blowing out a team by 50 as opposed to narrowly winning by one. Unlike movies or novels, where the climax is supposed to occur roughly three-fourths of the way through the story, the Memphis Grizzlies have often waited until the very end of games to secure a victory.
A fourth of the way through the season, the Grizzlies have played six overtime periods. To compare, that’s the same number they had in 86 games last season. Yet, the Grizzlies (15-8) are 4-0 in those overtime games and sit at fifth in the Western Conference, nipping at the heels of the Houston Rockets (15-7) and L.A. Clippers (16-7). Nine of the Grizzlies’ other wins have come by six points or less, leaving a three-game run in which they downed the Mavericks, Timberwolves and Hornets as the only convincing wins of the season (278-225, +17.7 per game).
I’m not a fan of calling a team “lucky,” but the law of large numbers says it’s likely the Memphis Grizzlies will have to start dropping close games and come back down to Earth at some point this season. Basketball-Reference.com’ s expected win-loss record for the Grizzlies this year is 11-12, and it’s not hard to see why.
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Per Basketball Reference, the Grizzlies have had the third-easiest schedule in the NBA, but rank only 14th in average margin of victory at -0.48, a substantial drop behind the Milwaukee Bucks, who are 13th at +2.05.
A bumpy road awaits the Memphis Grizzlies, who run the gauntlet in December with games against the Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers (twice), Boston Celtics (twice), Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Grizzlies have dropped games due to resting players, a 36-point loss to Minnesota in November still leaves a sour taste in the mouths of the Grit ‘n’ Grind faithful, and injuries have played a part as well. But, the “Nasty Nine” took the lowly New Orleans Pelicans to double overtime just over a month after the full team (minus Chandler Parsons) needed an extra period to defeat the same team.
The math is simple, you win basketball games by scoring more than your opponent. To this point, the Memphis Grizzlies haven’t done that, and the win-loss column will reflect that unless changes are made.