Grizzlies’ nagging issues become clear in loss at Mavericks

The Grizzlies rough stretch continues with Memphis dropping another tough game that was never truly within reach. It’s not the losses that are bothersome, it’s the way this team is losing. I can’t remember the last time I saw a Grizzlies team that defended the 3-pointer as poorly as this squad in the last few games.

It’s all of the same stuff that we’ve been seeing. Bad shots, turnovers, and passed up scoring opportunities. The lack of offense doesn’t even feel like a schematic problem, it feels like a confidence problem. That being said, this team has been struggling finding good looks. When they do get good looks, the shots aren’t falling.

In fact, the shots aren’t just missing, they’re not even close a lot of the time. This was highlighted by a 3rd quarter air-ball by Justise Winslow, who has continued to struggle in finding his groove offensively. That was one of two air-balled 3-pointers for Winslow, by the way.

There were positives in this game, but not enough to get a win

Memphis actually did a strong job stopping Luka Doncic, ending his 14-game streak of scoring 25 points or more. But it didn’t matter; other Mavericks players stepped up. Josh Richardson and Tim Hardaway Jr. could not miss a shot, signifying to Grizzlies fans what type of game this was going to be.

The type of game that I’m referring to is another 3-point contest for the opposing team. Thankfully, Dallas wasn’t shooting particularly well themselves, but Taylor Jenkins’ squad made sure they had plenty of open opportunities to figure this out.

Despite the unwatchable nature of this game, the Grizzlies actually stuck around for most of the match. Until the very end, it felt like Memphis was about to go on a run and come back. But each time a run started, it would be stopped in its tracks by a dumb turnover or a wide open shot that barely hit the rim.

Speaking of wide open shots, the Grizzlies couldn’t seem to hit any of them as the game went on. In the end, Memphis shot 6-31 from the 3-point line. For those keeping track, that makes this team 11-64 in the past two games. You read that right, the Grizzlies are shooting 17% from the 3-point line in the past couple of games.

Beyond a brutal start to the game, this one didn’t look as bad as the previous two 31-point losses. Having said that, this may have been the most demoralizing out of the three games. This was supposed to be the bounce-back game for this team. These guys were supposed to come out swinging and send one of the best players in the league home with a loss.

At the end of the day, the Mavericks landed the first punch and the Grizzlies could never recover. If not for an awful first quarter, this would have been a close game until the very end. Hopefully, Taylor Jenkins will address the issues that seem to keep popping up lately, especially on the defensive end.