Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins sounds off following blowout loss to Jazz
By Mark Nilon
With Wednesday night’s fall to the Utah Jazz, the Memphis Grizzlies have officially become the last remaining winless team in the association, as they have now fallen to a putrid 0-5.
Though most of their previous losses have proven to be rather tightly contested contests, their latest bout got out of hand extremely early, as they allowed Utah to drop 42 points in the first quarter alone and were found trailing 79-46 heading into halftime.
While the Grizzlies did outscore the Jazz during the final two periods while predominantly playing their bench unit (63-54), their initial 33-point deficit simply proved to be too much for them to overcome and, thus, dropped game five in blowout fashion, losing by a final score of 133-109.
Following the contest, coach Taylor Jenkins was asked if he was encouraged by the second-half play of his club, particularly his reserve unit, and, while he did share some positive notes, ultimately he couldn’t refrain from calling out his team as a whole for yet another lackluster showing.
Taylor Jenkins sounds off on Grizzlies following blowout loss to Jazz
"“Yea we found a groove, first half was tough for our bench unit I think we may have only had five points coming off the bench. Luke [Kennard] knocked down a shot, [David] Roddy was playing pretty well, obviously [Kenneth Lofton Jr.] and [Vince Williams Jr.] I thought played really well when they got their opportunities so we all just got to play better,” Jenkins said. “That’s what it comes down to. Starting group, bench group, got to coach better. That’s what our M.O. is and we will get better.”"
Memphis’ play on the offensive side was seemingly miles behind their defensive brand of production coming into Wednesday’s game, as they ranked a lowly 27 in offensive rating while boasting a somewhat respectable 15-ranked defensive rating.
This loss against the Jazz, however, saw them equally struggle on both ends of the floor, registering at 21 and 23, respectively, in these aforementioned categories out of the teams who played on the night.
The Grizzlies allowed Utah to shoot at an electrifying rate on the night, as they converted 54.0 percent of their attempts from the field and 51.2 percent from deep on a whopping 43 attempts while they only managed to knock down 35 of their 96 shots from the field (36.5 percent) and 14 of their 54 attempts from beyond the arc (25.0 percent).
Simply put, to say that this team needs to play better would be an egregious understatement.
