A nearly fully healthy Memphis Grizzlies team just blew a 20-point lead against an Orlando Magic team that didn’t have their head coach and only had 9 healthy active players. Even without these things, they’re arguably the worst team in the league.
The worst part? This isn’t the first time they’ve had a collapse like this against a terrible team.
The biggest Memphis Grizzlies homers will admit that this was a terrible loss. It was inexcusable. I would go so far as to say that it was the worst loss by any NBA team in the league this season.
There is no reason that the Grizzlies should have played as poorly as they did in the first game against the Magic, much less lose to this team in the second.
The Memphis Grizzlies’ loss came at a terrible time, with key mistakes causing the downfall
Thankfully, the Grizzlies have a cakewalk ahead of them — something that may have seemed like more of an opportunity before they blew a 20-point lead to a G-League team. That said, the cakewalk had already begun against the Magic.
The Grizzlies took care of a bad Magic team in the first game at home. It wasn’t pretty, but an ugly first half was excusable due to a dominant defensive second half that saw the Grizz take the win. Saturday’s game, however, was one of the worst performances that I’ve seen as a Grizzlies fan.
You will not get more of a “gimme” game than this and it might have come down to coaching. That’s right — somehow Taylor Jenkins got outcoached by a team whose coach was out due to COVID-19 protocol.
It was the same pattern that we’ve seen time and time again. Here’s what the pattern looks like.