The Memphis Grizzlies fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night inside FedExForum 127-103. This season, the Grizzlies have a 1-9 record at home and a 6-15 record overall.
Memphis was severely exploited by the Wolves in rebounding, 54-28. Minnesota also had 23 second chance points while the Grizzlies only had nine.
In the end, Minnesota center Rudy Gobert grabbed 20 rebounds, which was more than the 11 boards grabbed by the Grizzlies starting five combined.
“Really, really tough—he had nine offensive rebounds,” Grizzlies head coach Taylor on the difficulty of defending Gobert. “They had 23 second chance points. It was a challenge all night no matter who we put on him. We’ve got to be extremely better. They came in and punked us two games in a row now.”
The Timberwolves prevailed over the Grizzlies 119-97 on November 26th in their most recent meeting in Memphis.
The rebounding performance of the Grizzlies left Jenkins undoubtedly displeased. “They punked us in the first half on the boards,” the coach said following the game, “[and] too many fouls. They play with force. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit. They’re a really, really good basketball team.”
Jenkins went on to say, “And then when we guarded really well, we couldn’t get a rebound. It’s [on] everybody. It’s one through five out there on the floor. We’ve got to take more onus on making that a priority every night, and especially against this team.”
For Jenkins, it’s about the will and effort for his players to do better on the boards.
Just one Grizzlies player, Santi Aldama, had a good rebounding performance; he finished with 10, one less than what the five starters totaled.
Jaren Jackson Jr. led Memphis with 21 points while shooting 3-of-4 three-pointers and 7-of-14 overall. He has scored 20 points or more in 11 games this season.
“Work harder,” Jackson Jr. said on the team’s rebounding woes. “They’re big so you have to use your force and body. And everybody’s got to participate. Can’t just be anybody. Everybody’s got to do it together.”
Jackson says things are getting better for the team. “We’re trending up in a lot of ways. You can’t look at everything too hard. We’re trending up though, we’re getting our chemistry down and our rotations down. We’re learning each other better. That helps on both sides of the ball.
“Don’t look at everything too hard and just appreciate that we are trending upward but don’t let this get away from us,” he continued. “Definitely look at the film, come together and realize we really got to improve little things. There are things that were glaring tonight that they exploited . … We’re about to play better teams, too. I feel like everybody in the league looks good right now. But shoot, Dallas, you know that’s next, [and] Houston twice. Teams that are also trending upwards. So, we just have to hone in on what we’ve been doing recently for sure.”
Desmond Bane finished with 16 points, while connecting on 4-of-6 from the three-point line.
Two-year forward David Roddy chipped in 13 points and two rebounds. “It’s disappointing for sure,” Roddy said about the team’s rebounding issues. “It’s something that we’ve been harping on for the past few weeks now. It’s again tough when they have a lot of size with [Karl-Anthony Towns], Rudy [Gobert], Naz Reid, and [Kyle Anderson]. We just had to be better. We had to build out, box out, clear those guys out of the paint and let the guards clean it up. We didn’t do that today. We’re going to look back on film and work on it.”
Roddy believes the adversity with injuries and different lineups will help them as the season goes on. “I think it helps us all really in the end. People are thrown in different roles and positions and it’s going to be a great experience. At the end of the day you’re learning a new position, you’re learning different lineups, and what opponents are like. You can carry that on later in the season when things get more solidified. I see it right now as positive. We’re, again, going to enjoy this journey. We’re going to endure as much as we can and just trust in it.”
The Ja Morant Countdown Continues
Morant has four games left of his 25-game league suspension. The All-Star guard is expected to make his season debut against the New Orleans Pelicans on December 19th.
Up Next
Memphis will look to improve its home record against the Dallas Mavericks on Monday, December 11th, at 7 p.m. inside FedExForum.
