Pistons Host Title-Contending Grizzlies
By J.M. Poulard
Essentials
- Teams: Memphis Grizzlies (47-20) at Detroit Pistons (23-43)
- Date: March 17
- Time: 7:30 p.m.
- Television: FSD
Get in the Game
The Detroit Pistons will host a Memphis Grizzlies team tonight that is truly one for the ages.
It’s not so much that Memphis is blowing away every team in the league, although they do have an elite net rating, rather this Grizzlies squad is probably the best in franchise history.
Where one (Pau) Gasol failed previously, another one (Marc) is thriving and could lead Memphis to a title.
Memphis is currently sitting on 47 wins going into tonight with 15 games remaining, which means they have shot at surpassing the 56-win franchise record set during the 2012-13 campaign.
The latter squad was certainly formidable as evidenced by a trip to the Western Conference finals, but that appearance was a little misleading. The Grizzlies eliminated an injured Los Angeles Clippers team in the first round (Blake Griffin went down during the series) and dismantled the Oklahoma City Thunder in round two sans Russell Westbrook.
The Grizzlies were then swept in the conference finals by the San Antonio Spurs. That Memphis unit was good but a little flawed, and San Antonio exploited their weaknesses. The Grizz lacked perimeter shooting and scoring to complement the interior duo of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, and it ultimately doomed them.
Fast-forward to this year, and those are concerns of the past.
Indeed, Memphis sports a top-three defense coupled with a better-than-average offense thanks to the additions of Vince Carter (free agency) and Jeff Green (trade).
The Grizzlies have the right mix of interior scorers to go along with perimeter playmakers.
Point guard Mike Conley Jr. is the one who controls everything in terms of pace and who gets the ball where.. The difference in comparison to previous years is the added boost given by Green and Carter.
They bring shooting and some creativity off the bounce that’s been sorely missing for this team. As a result, the Grizzlies are better than ever given the fact that they tend to shut opponents down.
Indeed, their defense is so good that anything resembling a competent scoring night will suffice to earn a victory. Indeed, when Memphis scores 95 points or more, they are an astounding 39-6.
Hence, I’m inclined to believe they have a shot at making run all the way to the trophy especially when one looks at the Western Conference landscape.
The Portland Trail Blazers have lost Wes Matthews (Achilles), OKC is now without Kevin Durant (foot) and Serge Ibaka (knee), the Houston Rockets haven’t had Dwight Howard since January (knee), and the Clips’ Jamal Crawford is currently sidelined (calf).
Consequently, I would urge fans not to sleep on these Grizzlies.
The Pistons will see them firsthand tonight, with Greg Monroe (knee) missing the game. It’s typically a tall order to take on Memphis at full strength, and without Monroe, that task just became a lot tougher.
Read about the Grizzlies