MEMPHIS – Miss Betty was intent on making her point clear.
As bad as things have felt recently, this isn’t over. There’s absolutely more that can be done.
Folding isn’t an option.
“Things haven’t gone our way, but this is no time to quit,” Miss Betty insisted the other night. “This team needs us more than ever right now. We have to do the best we can as fans to get behind our guys and give them all the support they need to get through this.”
A long-time season-ticket holder, unrelenting Grizzlies supporter and frequent caller into the team’s postgame radio show, Miss Betty has her priorities and demands in order. She delivered them over the air in equal doses of disappointment, frustration, grace and compassion.
Beyond each other inside the locker room and front office suite at FedExForum, these are the folks the Grizzlies must hold themselves accountable to as this season plays out. These are the fans Zach Randolph once spoke of when he famously described the Grizzlies as a “blue-collar team in a blue-collar town.”
These are the kind of fans who embody the “all-heart, grit and grind” DNA that became the slogan during the longest stretch of consecutive playoff appearances in franchise history. Consider them the fans these Grizzlies have inherited from those Grizzlies.
So, understandably, these are the same fans who refuse to give in now, even as the Grizzlies face an enormous dose of adversity while trying to salvage this season. And these fans won’t accept anything less than the same level of fight from their team that takes the court.
The initial shock and turbulence are now behind them. The Grizzlies emerged winless from a daunting three-game homestand after losing to the Lakers, Celtics and Warriors on the heels of parting ways with Taylor Jenkins as coach last Friday.
They still hold their playoff fate in their hands.
Four of their final six regular-season games are on the road, starting with a two-game swing to Miami on Thursday and Detroit on Saturday. Despite struggles that have plagued Memphis since the All-Star break, the Grizzlies have at least clinched a spot in the postseason.
The question now is can they remain among the top six teams in the Western Conference and avoid the Play-In Tournament? That’s not a question the Grizzlies want to answer right now.
That’s because Memphis is still in recovery mode. Focusing on the day-to-day details is the top priority, and any picture that projects beyond tomorrow will develop in due time.
“We will do everything we can now to rest after this very physically and emotionally tough stretch of three games and everything that’s been going on,” Grizzlies interim coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “It’s very hard to ask anything more from our guys. They’ve been leaving it all out on the floor. They deserve a reward for it. Unfortunately for us, it wasn’t in these first three games. But going into the next game, we’ll do everything we can to make that happen.”
Each day is a new opportunity to reset, restore and rebuild.
Two months ago, the Grizzlies sat second in the West still needing to prove they could win against the league’s better teams. They’ve since tumbled in the standings and desperately need to fix defensive slippage and offensive inconsistencies while navigating a late coaching change.
That’s hardly ideal. Yet, there’s still a fighting chance to turn things around if the Grizzlies capitalize on this chance to keep fighting.
“We have hit a point where we know what we have to do,” Grizzlies forward Santi Aldama assured. “There’s no moral victory in this. The schedule is tough, but we have to focus on ourselves, just trying to attack this one day at a time with the situation we’re in right now.”
When they departed for Miami on Wednesday, the Grizzlies were among four teams separated by just one game in the middle of the Western Conference playoff picture. The Warriors, Grizzlies, Timberwolves and Clippers are bunched up between fifth and eighth in the standings, with the jockeying likely to shift each night over these final two weeks of the season.
As it stands, two of those four teams will lock themselves into the fifth and sixth seeds that guarantee a first-round playoff series. The other two will fall seventh and eighth and must qualify through the Play-In Tournament to earn a chance to advance to the playoffs.
“These last few, we definitely felt the weight,” Grizzlies star guard Ja Morant acknowledged of the mental and physical burden the team has carried in three games over a four-day stretch. “We have to get wins. Flip the script, go out and take a different mentality on the road.”
Despite the rocky circumstances, the Grizzlies are as healthy as they’ve been all season. The core of Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Desmond Bane remains intact. Aside from veteran forward Brandon Clarke, who suffered a season-ending knee injury last month, much of the supporting cast that once formed the NBA’s most productive bench is still there.
To that end, the Grizzlies still have as many things potentially going for them as they have counting against them. Ultimately, taking the most important inventory starts from within.
“There’s no real time to think,” Jackson said in reference to the digital screen inside the locker room that updates the conference standings each night. “We’ve got to have that urgency. The board is right there. I can see it on the way in and out every day.”
The standings should matter to the Grizzlies.
What should matter even more at a time like this? Fans like Miss Betty seeing them continue to fight to take a stand and salvage every opportunity they can this season.