The Memphis Grizzlies Must Take Advantage Of The Short-Handed Houston Rockets
By Chris Kern
The Memphis Grizzlies look to pick up a road win against a short-handed Houston Rockets squad. Memphis has some injuries of their own so it will be difficult.
The Memphis Grizzlies have a chance to get a road win against a good team that will be without some key players.
The Rockets will be without Chris Paul, Eric Gordon, and Clint Capela for tonight’s game. Injuries haven’t cost this team much lately though since James Harden has been playing at an MVP level.
Houston is coming off of a Sunday night loss against the Orlando Magic on the road. Harden went just 1-17 from three-point range which was an NBA record for attempts for a player who made just one three-pointer.
Despite his struggles from beyond the arc he still finished with 38 points, 12 assists, and 9 rebounds which shows how dominant he can be in other areas.
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His ability to get to the free-throw line is a huge strength of his and the Grizzlies need to do everything they possibly can to keep that from being a big factor in this game.
In the first two meetings, he combined to go 32-40 from the free-throw line. If he gets close to 20 I don’t see anyway Memphis can get the win.
While Harden does have to be contained to have a chance the Grizzlies also need to make sure they contain the role players as well.
In the last meeting on New Year’s Eve in Houston, Gerald Green finished with 18 points on 6-11 shooting all from three-point range.
While in the first meeting he also had a good game, scoring 17 points on 5-6 shooting, 4-4 of which came from three-point range.
He is a guy the Grizzlies need to account for at all times. This isn’t a deep team and they need to make sure the role players don’t get into a rhythm early on.
The Grizzlies have to deal with some key injuries of their own as well. Dillon Brooks‘ season is over and they will also be without Kyle Anderson for a couple of weeks.
This is why Justin Holiday was brought to Memphis. The situation is not ideal for him but he needs to start stepping up otherwise this trade is going to be an even bigger mistake then it originally was.
The Grizzlies should be able to have a lot of success in the paint with Marc Gasol and Jaren Jackson Jr. They need to get the ball inside early and often.
With Capela, they played a lot of smaller lineups anyway and now without him, they likely will play even more, though they do have a couple of other options they can go with.
Nene Hilario is a veteran center who knows what it takes to succeed in this league so he could start but he should play solid minutes regardless.
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Expect a lot of minutes with guys like Danuel House and P.J. Tucker guarding Jackson and while Tucker is a really good defender he shouldn’t be able to handle Jackson down low.
In the two games, combined Jackson has only scored 13 points against the Rockets this season, there’s no reason he doesn’t surpass that by a wide margin in this game.
The Grizzlies need to get him going early so he can have a big day. We have seen many times when he struggles early he isn’t as engaged as this team would like him to be.
A lot of Jackson’s struggles down low directly correlate to some of the team’s issues on the perimeter and how they can’t shoot the ball with any success.
No matter how much fans won’t like to hear this we can expect a heavy dosage of Shelvin Mack alongside Mike Conley as well as being the backup point guard.
We should also expect some young guys to get a chance with Jevon Carter and maybe even Yuta Watanabe. It is a team effort, and everybody needs to step up to have a chance to win.
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These next couple of weeks are going to be either a turning point or the end for this team. What better way to get it started then a road win against the Rockets.