Memphis Grizzlies: Lose One, Win One

It seems like the last two games for the Memphis Grizzlies have summed up the first two weeks of the season. The Grizzlies have lost a game then win the next one for the first seven games of the year. All four of the losses have been blowouts; yes, the Spurs game got a little close at the end but was out of hand for most of the game. Then two of the three wins have been blowouts for the Grizzlies. It is really hard to get a read on this team, one night Zach Randolph is scoring 23 points and the next he has two total points for the game. Furthermore, Marc Gasol, who averages eight rebounds for his career, only had one rebound in 31 minutes against the Pelicans. In addition with the upcoming schedule it looks like it will be more up and down with the road games coming up. Let’s take a look at some players over the first few games.

Mike Conley

Mike Conley is leading the Grizzlies in scoring. Photo Credit: Mark Runyon, Basketball Schedule

After seven games Conley is your Memphis Grizzlies points leader at just less than 19 points per game. Conley is starting off this season playing some great basketball in many areas; he is shooting above 50 percent and is averaging more than five assists per game. However, he is shooting 22 percent from 3 and he is taking about 3 of them a game. I believe he is taking this many 3s per game due to the lack of shooting he normally plays with, but the great news is that he  getting to the rim even with the lanes clogged up. As the lineups get finalized over the next weeks, we will see Conley shoot fewer 3s at the shooters play more with him.

Ed Davis and Quincy Pondexter

These two guys were supposed to be big players off the bench, however, they have played just as up and down as the team. They are both averaging less than 15 minutes per game and both at four points or less per game. Lately they have been playing less and less; I know that Joerger is still tinkering with the lineups so it will be interesting to see how Davis’ and Pondexter’s minutes will look when we get to December.

Zach Randolph

The Grizzlies go as Randolph goes, in all three of the wins Randolph had more than 15 points and more than 10 rebounds in two of the games.

Zach Randolph has been a roller-coaster of inconsistency. Photo Credit: Mark Runyon, Basketball Schedule, Flickr.com

Randolph is the barometer for the Grizzlies, because in the losses he has not played well or not had the scoring chances in the post. At this point he is averaging 13 points per game and just less than eight rebounds per game, both would be well below his career averages. At this point Memphis has to find a way to get Randolph going early, in order to avoid all the slow starts and bad first quarters. Randolph is an All Star and one of the best power forwards in the game still; Joerger needs to find a way to get his offense to play through him more often and earlier in the game.

[slider_pro id=”15″]