The Grizzlies gave their worst performance of the season in losing by 29 points at home to a Bobcats team that had been only 1-9 on the road. I don’t have the heart to waste too much time on this debacle. So let’s dispatch with this quickly:
1. “The S*#t Was Unseemly”: That’s how Cheese from The Wire would have described this game. The Bobcats got a combined 73 points on 31-40 shooting from their starting frontline, shot 66% from the floor as a team, and out-rebounded the Grizzlies 41-23. The Grizzlies came out inexplicably flat and the Bobcats rolled right over them. It was a game-long lay-up line that had the boo-birds out on multiple occasions.
2. Defense Collapses, Offense Follows: The Grizzlies were doing okay offensively to start the game, with Rudy Gay and Darko Milicic both effective in the first quarter, but the defensive collapse was so total the team fell behind by double digits in the first quarter anyway, and the offense unraveled too.
O.J. Mayo had his worst shooting performance of the season at 2-10, ending his double-digit scoring streak, but I still would have rather seen him get up more shots that watch Quinton Ross go 1-8 in little more than half as many minutes.
Another sign of how total the embarrassment was: The Bobcats point guard tandem notched a combined 18 assists. The Griz counterparts: 2.
3. Impressing the Boss: Who enjoyed a courtside seat for his basketball abomination? Owner Michael Heisley. The big boss man vacated courtside at halftime. Maybe he vacated the building too. Who would blame him? Sticking it out at courtside, looking perplexed at how listless and terrible the Griz played, and chatting up Chris Wallace after the game: Worldwide Wes. (Presumably in town for Syracuse-University of Memphis tomorrow).
The Jacob Riis Report: I knocked the Bobcats recent deal with the Suns, but if Boris Diaw can keep playing like he did during his breakout season with the Suns a few years ago, maybe it will turn out to be a decent deal. Diaw rotated between power forward and small forward tonight and abused the Grizzlies inside and out, scoring a game-high 26 points on 11-13 shooting, including 4-4 from three-point range. Diaw also grabbed 10 rebounds (including 4 on the offensive end) and dished 3 assists.
