Are the Memphis Grizzlies ready to compete with playoff-level teams?

The Memphis Grizzlies‘ season has been defined by beating bottom-of-the-barrel teams and losing to elite teams.

There hasn’t been much of an in-between. At least not until recently.

Since the return of Justise Winslow, things have changed a bit. It seems like a Grizzlies team that didn’t have the talent on its roster to compete with top-tier teams is suddenly hanging around. In fact, Memphis has been in position to win all of their recent games against these teams.

The Memphis Grizzlies have lost a few games that they should have won

In a tough Western conference, those are the games that are going to make a difference when the playoffs come around. The Grizzlies, sitting at 17-17 and 10th in the conference, are only 3.5 games behind the 5th-place Portland Trail Blazers.

Had the Grizzlies won their game against the Bucks, rather than losing by a point, and won their matchup against the Nuggets, who they also lost to by another single point, this team would be in a relatively secure position for the play-in tournament.

Instead, these losses have send the Grizzlies to the last place position for the tournament. This would mean that they’d be matched up against the best team that didn’t get an automatic playoff bid. It’s the difference between playing for a high seed and playing for any chance to compete at all.

But let’s slow down for a second.

The NBA Playoffs aren’t for a while, so the Memphis Grizzlies will have plenty of time to build their way back up. But in order do to this, they have to start beating some more experienced teams. Can they do it?