There was rain in Memphis on Wednesday night, and it disrupted the Memphis Grizzlies’ game in Portland, Oregon.
There was no flow to the Grizzlies offense; Steven Adams and Jaren Jackson Jr. were both in foul trouble. To make matters worse, Portland did a great job of keeping Ja Morant out of the paint where he’s most efficient.
Morant broke down why there was a lack of execution on both ends of the court. He said, “They were blitzing and doubling me off ball-screens. We just had to make shots. I feel like we let our offensive struggles affect us on the other end of the floor and missing assignments. Really wasn’t locked into the game plan really that much. We just let our mistakes turn into more mistakes and they got hot and won the game.”
“It was just one of those games — we just felt like we didn’t really get rolling,” Grizzlies backup point guard Tyus Jones said of the defeat. “We are usually able to kind of hit a point in the game where we feel like we’re clicking, go on a decent run as well, and we just didn’t get to that point tonight. It was just one of those nights and luckily we play in 24 hours, so we get a chance to correct it right away.”
Memphis led 57-51 at halftime, but the Blazers outscored the Grizzlies 65-39 in the second half.
“We didn’t play well tonight,” Taylor Jenkins said after the loss. We got an opportunity tomorrow. Our guys have always bounced back and competed [in] the next opportunity — so learn from it, get better, and play better tomorrow.”
Jenkins continued, “We knew they were an aggressive defense — give them credit — they played hard and turned us over but we still had plenty of opportunities to kill runs and stay in this ball game and we didn’t take advantage.” Portland forced 21 turnovers.
According to Jones, the Blazers’ defense, “were up on ball screens, showing hands, being active, and they just deflected a good amount of passes.” If the team is not extremely careful with the ball, precise with passes, they’ll force a lot of turnovers then they get out and run and hit shots. “They hit a lot of shots, a lot of contested shots so it kind of played into their hands a little bit. They were up on ball screens. We just got to do a better job capitalizing on that.”
Despite the gloomy conditions inside Moda Center, Desmond Bane was the bright spot for the Grizzlies on Wednesday night. The TCU alum led Memphis with 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting. He continued his streak of connecting on multiple three-pointers while going 4-of-7.
After taking an accidental elbow to the head from Blazers forward Larry Nance Jr., Bane left the game late in the third quarter. Because of the blow, Bane’s blood spilled onto the court, and he needed six stitches to close the wound.
Bane is poised to take the second year leap. Through four games, the 6’5” guard is averaging 19.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 28.5 minutes of play for Memphis.
Up Next
The Grizzlies will face the 4-0 Golden State Warriors, tonight at the Chase Center to wrap its four game West road trip. Tip-off starts at
9 p.m. CT.
