Insider Insights: Charlotte Beats Memphis, Grizzlies Losers of 8 Straight

Eight straight losses are never fun.

Last night Memphis took a quick trip to North Carolina to take on the 10-41 Charlotte Hornets. The Grizzlies were favored coming into the game facing one of the few teams in the NBA with a worst record in them. Both teams looked a little different after the trade deadline and were looking to find chemistry with their new pieces.

The first quarter was extremely competitive. Jaren Jackson Jr. and Brandon Miller were both leading their teams from the jump. Both bigs were aggressive and attacking from the inside and outside.

They got help from their supporting casts as the first quarter ended with a 28-25 Memphis lead. The second quarter is when the tide changed in favor of the Hornets.

In the second quarter, Charlotte just came out with more energy and fight. Charlotte forced their presence on the inside and Memphis couldn’t recover. In the first half, Charlotte outrebounded Memphis 22-13. Memphis couldn’t get any offensive flow going as they were outscored 33-21 in the 2nd.

The first half ended with Charlotte ahead 58-49. Charlotte was killing Memphis with a balanced scoring effort across the board. They shot 60% from the field as Memphis could only get to 43%.

Triple J was the bright spot in the first half with 14 PTS.

The second half was unfortunately more of the same. The Grizzlies led by Jackson Jr. and GG Jackson II were shooting decently from the field. However, Charlotte continued their hot shooting.

Memphis couldn’t get enough stops in the second half. Charlotte’s new additions of Tre Mann, Grant Williams, and Vasilije Micic came alive in the 2nd half and put Charlotte over the edge.

Memphis made their runs but couldn’t get enough timely stops to complete the comeback effort. Memphis and Charlotte both scored exactly 57 points in the second half to end the game with a 115-106 win for the Hornets.

Miles Bridges led Charlotte with 25 PTS as Brandom Miller added 18 PTS. Charlotte had a total of five guys in double-digits. Jaren Jackson Jr. led all scorers with 29 PTS as GG Jackson ended with 16 PTS. Memphis had a total of six guys in double-digits.

On paper, if you have six guys in double digits you would expect to win, but Memphis couldn’t overcome their lackluster second quarter and the rebounding battle. The ending stats were nearly identical, but the clear discrepancy was on the boards. Memphis lost the battle on the boards 43-32.

This ended up snapping the Hornets’ 10-game losing streak and extended Memphis’ losing streak to eight.

Now for the takeaways:

The trade deadline was in full effect

The trade deadline is officially over. Grizzlies fans don’t have to worry about who is staying and who is being shipped out. The Grizzlies made moves for the future and that was the goal at the deadline.

They locked up GG Jackson II and Trey Jemison for the future and received a lot of trade capital and financial flexibility. All of these are good things.

However, depending on who you ask, the downside of the deadline was Memphis traded some valuable assets to new locations. David Roddy and Xavier Tillman were two consistent rotation players for Memphis over the past few years who both showed flashes of promise in spurts.

Since both of these guys are no longer with the team there is a noticeable gap in the wing and big department and it was felt tonight. The new additions of Yuta Watanabe and Lamar Stevens were both active in the lineup, but both received DNPs.

On the other hand, Charlotte played their new additions and they were the difference tonight. Memphis lost this game on the boards, their subpar defense, and lack of offensive firepower on the wings. These are all areas that X and Big Body Roddy could’ve helped in.

I’m not coming from the position where we shouldn’t have traded these two, but I’m spelling out that the effect of the trade deadline was felt tonight. And there’s a good chance this effect will be felt for the rest of the season.

Grizzlies’ general manager Zach Klieman stated in his post-deadline press conference that these moves were to have financial flexibility for the future in particular this upcoming off-season and draft. The team is going all in on losing games, getting a high draft pick, and deciding what to do from there.

With Steven Adams no longer on the roster, Klieman will address the need at center position this summer. Klieman left the team without a true center for the rest of the year, so don’t be surprised if there are more games that which Memphis gets killed on the boards.

Watanabe and Stevens will work their way into the rotation in this upcoming home stand, and we’ll be able to see how they mesh with their new teammates. The Grizzlies look different from the start of the season and it’ll be interesting to see how these new pieces fit into the plans.

Optimistic/Pessimistic

What to be optimistic about?: Triple J is continuing to show that he can get anything he wants offensively against anyone in the league. He’s looking more comfortable as the number one option.

What to be pessimistic about?: With no true big man, Memphis will be undersized in most games. If you’re in the camp that Memphis should be trying to win games right now, you have a long 29 games ahead of you.

Photo Credit: (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)