Another Nightmare on Beale Street!!

The Grizzlies once again have had another embarrassing loss this season as they were throttled by the Thunder, 125-88.

I don’t really know where exactly to start but this was a horrible game by the Grizzlies in nearly every statistical category!!

This team can’t win a game when the starting line-up didn’t give them anything, whatsoever? They were a god-awful 13-of-42 for the game.

The only starter who was in double figures was Marc Gasol with 11 points. He left the game in the third quarter due to an ankle injury. Mike Conley went 0-for-7 from the field also with six assists and a lone steal. That’s an awful stat that I bet Conley wants to forget.

 

Game stats

—Points in the Paint: Thunder 56 (28/45), Grizzlies 46 (23/48)

—2nd Chance Points: Thunder 13 (5/9), Grizzlies 10 (5/12)

—Fast Break Points: Thunder 23 (8/12), Grizzlies 11 (4/9)

—Rebounds: Thunder 46, 10 (OREB), Grizzlies 33, 11 (OREB)

—Assists: Thunder 31, Grizzlies 14

—Field goals: Thunder 47/84, 56.0%, Grizzlies 33/81, 40.7%

—Three point field goals: Thunder 13/26, 50.0%, Grizzlies 3/14, 21.4%

—Bench points: Thunder 49, Grizzlies 55

 

Player notes

Marc Gasol finished with 11 points and four rebounds… All of his points and three of his rebounds came in the opening half… He played only 4:22 of the final two frames.

Mario Chalmers led the Grizzlies in scoring with 19 points on a 6-for-8 clip (75.0 percent)… In his two games against the Thunder in a Grizzlies uniform, Chalmers is averaging 24 points per game.

Russell Westbrook recorded 16 assists, tying a season-high (Nov. 4 vs. Toronto)… Twelve of his assists came in the first half. The Thunder point guard had 14 assists in the earlier meeting on Nov. 16, a 122-114 Grizzlies win. Oklahoma City is 6-1 all-time in games where Westbrook has accumulated 16 or more assists.

Kevin Durant played in only his second game against the Grizzlies in the past two seasons due to injury… He led all scorers with 37 points and a game-high +/- of 37… Durant was 11-for-14 from the field (78.6 percent), 4-of-5 on three-pointers (80.0 percent) and a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe.

 

Thoughts

— This team need to figure out who they are. Yes, they are 12-10 but they are inconsistent from game to game. The Grizzlies have lost by double figures in eight of the 10 losses this season. That’s just horrible.

— Where has the grit and grind gone? To me it’s just not a style of play..it’s who they were. They have lost their identity and it seems like all the elite teams has figured them out.

— Tonight, I saw no fight in them. I don’t know what’s going on but I didn’t like what I saw. I didn’t see any competitiveness spirit out there after the Thunder took a double digit lead.

Courtney Lee said in his post game remarks, “Coach hit it on the nail. He said they threw a punch at us and we didn’t punch back. They went on their run and we didn’t respond. The thing is, when a team goes on a run, you have to be able to get a stop and go back and try to go on your run and we didn’t do that tonight.” That speaks volumes and they know what they are supposed to do..somehow it’s not clicking during the game at times.

— Has Dave Joerger lost his ability to rally the troops? I honestly don’t know. Can we really blame him for the guys poor play during games? I think he’s responsible for some of the line up issues but most of the responsibility lies with the players on the floor and their effort.

— This season is not over by a long shot!! It’s too early in the season to give up on this team. They have only played 22 games so far. They have 60 more to go. They just need to figure out some things and play more consistently. And they really have time to do it.

 

***Stats per Grizzlies.com***