Help has arrived for the Memphis Grizzlies in the form of Jeff Green, who will surely assist the team in their attempt to conquer the brutal Western Conference.
Green’s ability to score will ameliorate the Grizzlies’ stout offense, but he won’t necessarily cause a revolution for his new club defensively. Memphis had its best offensive rating in their franchise’s history even before Green came aboard, but their grit and grind identity defensively seems to have eluded them this season; they are currently the 11th best defensive team in the league.
At 28-11, the Grizzlies are in third place in the Western Conference. Only two teams have been inclusively better on both ends of the floor than the Grizzlies, who are ranked 11th offensively and 11th defensively — Golden State (fourth offensively and first defensively) and Portland (sixth and third, respectively).
Memphis is accustomed to playing stifling defense annually, as they’re only one of two teams (Chicago is the other) that ranked in the top 10 in defensive efficiency each of the past four seasons. While Marc Gasol has emerged as the fulcrum of the Grizzlies’ soaring offense, their defense has recently slumped.
Through November, the Grizzlies ranked fourth defensively, allowing an impressive 97.8 points per 100 possessions. But since Dec. 1, their allotted points per 100 possession has spiked to nearly 105, which ranks 22nd in the league.
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Injuries have certainly been a factor in the Grizzlies’ decline on defense. Tony Allen missed four games in December with a corneal abrasion, and Zach Randolph missed 13 consecutive games due to a sore knee. Z-Bo isn’t a defensive player of the year candidate by any means, but Coach Dave Joerger was forced to experiment with various lineups.
He used three point guards together for the first time in their loss to the Atlanta Hawks last week, which he rationalized by expressing the team’s need for another playmaker on the floor.
But with Randolph’s absence, Memphis had to revert to a smaller brand of basketball — which isn’t conducive to playing great defense. Tayshaun Prince certainly isn’t as effective guarding 4s as he is guarding 3s.
“We’re playing some guys out of position, playing a little bit more small-ball than we generally do, mixing and matching some guys,” said Joerger before Wednesday’s game in Atlanta.
Prince, who the Grizzlies recently traded, claimed that a lack of practice time in December negatively affected the team defensively.
“No matter how good you are defensively or how veteran-ized your team is,” he said after the loss to Atlanta, “you still got to get some practice in to keep your mind set right. We haven’t been doing that lately.”
Meanwhile, Joerger believes the team has gotten too comfortable with how well they’ve been scoring offensively — causing them to neglect the other end of the court.
“We won some games by outscoring some people,” the coach said. “Sometimes you can gain confidence in that, and that’s a good thing to have, but then you can rely on that at times too.”
For numerous reasons, the Grizzlies have lost their luster on defense, and they need to retain their grit and grind identity if they wish to make a similar run to the Conference Finals appearance they made in 2013. They’re 7-8 in their last 15 games, and Marc had some ideas on how to right the ship.
“You can’t just point at one thing,” Gasol said. “It’s a multiple-factor thing. But if we don’t have good one-on-one defense, it’s tough to play. If we don’t keep the ball on the side of the floor, keep the ball away from the middle …
“The to our whole defense is to keep the ball away from the middle and protect that paint. If we don’t pull guys in and do multiple efforts, one side, other side, it’s tough. It’s really tough, because you go, like we did against Denver , into emergency mode way too early.”
Marc Gasol has experienced a decline in his individual defense this season as well, as he’s currently allowing opponents to shoot 50.3 percent at the rim — which is well below average for a big man.
Thankfully for Memphis, Zach Randolph has returned from his injury four games ago, and his presence has reaped fruit for the Grizzlies defense. Although their improvement is only a sampling of their capabilities, Memphis gave up 100.3 points per 100 possessions in their last four games since Randolph’s return, which would tie them with the Spurs for sixth best in the league.
They’re also 3-1 in that four game span, and Jeff Green’s 21 points versus the Magic on Friday night is a performance Grizzlies fans have been deprived of from the wing for quite sometime. The Grizzlies have established themselves as defensive juggernauts when they’re healthy over the years, and they’ve slowly been rediscovering their grit and grind style.
With a refined offense and a resurging defense, Memphis has placed itself among the most formidable teams in the league.
Not only does the addition of Jeff Green and the return of Zach Randolph seem as savory as milk and honey, but it also takes the offensive pressure off of Gasol, which allows the Grizzlies to focus more on getting back to their domineering defense; should Memphis utilize their sweet assets, they can surely make it to the championship promised land.