- Larry Kuzniewski
- This is not the Allen Iverson fans wanted to see on opening night.
Opening night! The Grizzlies open the 2009-2010 season at 7 p.m. tonight at FedExForum against the new-look, sketchy-defense, depressing-frontcourt-rotation-having Detroit Pistons, a team the Griz dispatched in a riveting but ultimately meaningless 115-94 preseason route a couple of weeks ago.
Lil Rounds and Three 6 Mafia will be in the house tonight, and so will I. Though it will be the exception, not the norm, this season, I will be live-blogging the opener. So check back here around game time. And local readers be sure to pick up a print edition of the Flyer around town today, which features a preview piece on the team and a few predictions for the coming season.
In the meantime, here are few things to think about relative to tonight’s game:
1. No Iverson: It looks like Allen Iverson will miss the team’s opener as he still hasn’t been able to conduct a full practice with the team. This will somewhat dampen the excitement of opening night and will mean Iverson will miss one of two chances this season to play against the franchise he had such a bad experience with a year ago.
This also would have been a good game to see the Grizzlies work through all their possible backcourt combinations, as the Pistons are likely to play some three-guard sets and probably some minutes with a small backcourt, perhaps with Will Bynum and Ben Gordon on the floor together.
As it is, with Iverson out, Marko Jaric not with the team, and Sam Young perhaps questionable, the Grizzlies will face off against a backcourt-heavy Pistons team with a rather thin group of guards. Look for the team to use a double-point-guard backcourt of Mike Conley and Marcus Williams some in this game, and for Conley’s ostensibly improved three-point shooting to get an early test.
