By Michael Wallace
Grind City Media
MEMPHIS – The sample size remains relatively small, but the early results are encouraging.
The Grizzlies are set to enter the most difficult stretch of their most demanding month on the regular-season schedule when the Portland Trail Blazers visit FedExForum on Thursday. After that, the league-best Golden State Warriors arrive Saturday and then Memphis plays a home-away, back-to-back set early next week against the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
All things considered, the Grizzlies (15-8) couldn’t have positioned themselves any better to face that gauntlet of games. They sit one game out of third place in the Western Conference standings despite missing five key rotation players to injuries, carry a four-game win streak into Thursday’s matchup and are 4-1 since losing scoring and assists leader Mike Conley to a fractured lower back 10 days ago.
The Grizzlies are responding to adversity with a resilience that has general manager Chris Wallace confident in what he’s seen through the first quarter of the season under first-year coach David Fizdale.
“You never know how quickly the learning curve is going to be with a new coach and coaching staff, also a coach who has not been in the head chair before,” Wallace said of Fizdale. “That’s impossible to predict. But he’s come in in a very short period of time and has got his grasp on the team in all facets.”
Defensively, the Grizzlies rank fourth in opponent scoring, sixth in field goal percentage defense, eighth in three-point percentage and tenth in steals. Offensively, Memphis is on pace to shatter the franchise record for three-pointers made and attempted as Fizdale continues to implement a playing style predicated on pace, tempo and spacing the floor. There have been major challenges, considering Memphis used 10 different starting lineups in the first 20 games. The preferred starting unit of Conley, Tony Allen, Chandler Parsons, JaMychal Green and Marc Gasol has been used just once this season.
Despite the constant lineup shuffling and a maintenance program designed to proactively manage the minutes of Gasol and Conley coming off season-ending injuries last spring, perhaps the most impressive feat of the young season is the Grizzlies’ 6-0 record on the second night of back-to-back games.
“I hope you know because I don’t,” Fizdale joked when asked for the team’s formula for perseverance. “All I know is that group in there really believes in each other and when it gets tough, they dig in. They know how to rise to the occasion when it calls for it. They really stay in the moment when it gets tough. It’s an uncanny thing we have, and it’s a great characteristic to have of a winning team.”
Wallace said he’s been most impressed by Fizdale’s connection with various personalities on the roster and how he’s challenged everyone from Gasol to rookie Andrew Harrison to expand their games. Harrison leads all NBA rookies in minutes while Gasol has reinvented himself from beyond the arc and entered the week tied for tenth in the league in three-point shooting percentage.
“He’s come up with ways to maximize the skills of the players we have,” Wallace said of the environment Fizdale has fostered in Memphis a quarter of the way into the season. “In 82 games, it’s not just smooth sailing and the wind at your back. There is some adversity you’re going to face. He basically has followed through on everything that he pushed in the interview process. It’s like a campaign plank for politicians. And he’s followed through on all parts of his campaign plank.”
HEALTH REPORT
Vince Carter (hip), who has missed the past five games, has been upgraded to questionable for Thursday’s game against Portland. Although each has made encouraging progress in recent days, Conley (back), Parsons (knee), James Ennis (calf) and Brandan Wright (ankle) remain out.
NUMBERS WATCH
11. The Grizzlies carry a pair of 11-game streaks into Thursday’s game. First, Memphis has won 11 consecutive games that either went to overtime or have been decided by five or fewer points. It’s the third-longest streak by a team to open the season since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976-77. The Grizzlies are also 11-0 this season in ‘super-clutch’ games, defined as contests in which the scoring margin is within three points at any stage in the final minute. Speaking of the number 11, that’s the number of points the Blazers got from their bench in their Nov. 6 visit to FedExForum. But C.J. McCollum, Damian Lillard and Mo Harkless combined for 74 points in Portland’s 100-94 victory.
KEEP AN EYE ON
Marc Gasol. Big Spain entered the season proclaiming he felt better than even before he suffered a foot fracture that required season-ending surgery last February. Gasol is backing up that claim with his recent play, having followed up Monday’s triple-double in the double overtime win in New Orleans with another double-double the next night in a victory against Philadelphia. A strong case can again be made that Gasol is the best true center in the league, especially recently. He’s averaged 23.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.6 assists, two blocks and 1.4 steals in 36.2 minutes in the five games Conley has recently missed. Gasol also shot 50 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from three-point range during that 4-1 stretch. He’ll need to continue at that pace to keep the Grizzlies in decent shape until Conley and several others return from injuries.
GRIZZ-TAKE
Sixers’ coach Brett Brown on Zach Randolph’s impact – He rebounds in his sleep. Any 50-50 balls that are close to the rim – he’s done it his whole life – he’s got an uncanny ability to come up with those, ‘me-or-you’ plays, and it’s him. He does so much work below sort of the vision line of referees. He’s very clever. I give him credit.
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The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Memphis Grizzlies. All opinions expressed by Michael Wallace are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Memphis Grizzlies or its Basketball Operations staff, owners, parent companies, partners or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Memphis Grizzlies and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.