For the slumping Memphis Grizzlies, this isn’t the best time to play the best team in the NBA’s Western Conference.
The Grizzlies, who have suffered three straight last-second losses, host the Oklahoma City Thunder Wednesday night. That means dealing with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a strong candidate to win the league’s Most Valuable Player Award, when he’s at his hottest.
Gilgeous-Alexander is coming off a 51-point performance Monday in a 137-128 victory over the Houston Rockets — his fourth 50-point game in the last six weeks. Also, that marked the Thunder’s 50th win of the season; no other Western Conference team has 40 wins.
But wait, the timing gets worse for Memphis. All-Star forward Jaren Jackson Jr. suffered an ankle injury at the outset of Monday’s loss to Atlanta. The Grizzlies’ top scorer (22.7 ppg) and defender has been declared out “week to week” with a Grade 2 left ankle sprain.
Jackson could have helped against Gilgeous-Alexander, whose spree of 50-point games started with a 54-point outing in a Jan. 22 win over the Utah Jazz. A 52-point effort followed on Jan. 29 against the Golden State Warriors. He scored 50 on Feb. 3 against Phoenix before Monday’s outburst.
“I just think he’s got an unbelievable pace to him right now,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Where he’s finding his stuff, he’s attacking and really hitting the gas on some plays, and then there’s other plays where he’s just letting the defense tell him what to do and moving it to his teammates and it’s allowing for the rest of the team to play really well at the same time as him. So, he deserves a lot of credit.”
Gilgeous-Alexander has been particularly effective in the paint but also has been shooting over 40 percent from beyond the 3-point arc the past month.
He said 50-point games are not becoming routine to him, but there’s not the same buzz surrounding his latest one.
“It becomes — you can say it’s not as exciting as the first one, but it’s more like getting lost in the process of just competing and. Like, playing the game you love,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “And then wherever that takes you, it takes you.”
“It’s going to be different for everybody. Not everyone can be Michael Jordan. I’m just getting lost in the process and having fun with it, whether it’s 50, whether it’s 27 or whether it’s 17. As long as we win, it’s a fun night.”
The Grizzlies, who spent considerable time in second place in the Western Conference, dropped to fourth following a stretch in which they lost six out of eight. A rash of injuries has contributed to the slump, including playing the past two games without guard Ja Morant (right shoulder soreness).
A rash of clutch shots by opponents also have contributed to the slump. The Grizzlies yielded a breakaway layup by Caris LeVert in the final seconds Monday to fall 132-130 to Atlanta Hawks.
Despite the first career triple-double by Desmond Bane (35 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists), the Grizzlies were unable to win. Memphis held a 13-point lead early in the fourth quarter against the Hawks. They led 128-121 with four minutes to go.
“Is defense going to matter or not, at the end of the day?” said coach Taylor Jenkins. “It all starts with the defense for us. We’re just bleeding points. We scored 130 points. I mean, that usually wins ball games most nights in the NBA.”
“But I told the team resilience is one of the best things (we) do. Teams face their ups and downs throughout the season for a lot of reasons. The injuries, our deficiencies on the defensive side, we’ve just got to rally and stay together. We’ve got to respond.”
