The Grizzlies open the regular season tonight on the road against a deep, talented Houston Rockets team. Three things I’ll be looking for:
1. The Lineup and Rotation: Even though coach Marc Iavaroni made noises about starting Darrell Arthur in my interview with him last week, I suspect the Grizzlies will open with the line-up they finished the preseason with: Mike Conley, O.J. Mayo, Rudy Gay, Darko Milicic, and Marc Gasol. Off the bench: Kyle Lowry, Quinton Ross, and Hakim Warrick. That’s eight. It’ll be interesting to see if Iavaroni works in another player or two into the mix: Arthur is probable. And maybe a second wing player off the bench: Marko Jaric and Javaris Crittenton are the more significant players going forward, but I wonder if Greg Buckner might play ahead of them tonight.
2. Defending Houston’s Big Two: Gasol and Milicic will likely split minutes guarding Yao Ming, but it will be instructive to see who gets the call more and who is more effective. Darko played Yao very well last season and has tended to be at his best against stationary low-post threats. As far as guarding Tracy McGrady, this will be a big test for Mayo right out of the gate. We’ll also get a first look at Ross matching up with an elite wing scorer. If Ross can be effective against the McGradys of the league, he could carve a very big role for himself this season.
3. Rudy vs. Ron-Ron: The match-up of the game will be Rudy Gay vs. Ron Artest. After averaging more than 20 points per game in his second season, Gay could be primed for another bump. He’ll get a test tonight against the most physical wing defender in the league.
The Jacob Riis Report: ESPN The Magazine’s Eric Neel has a nice feature on Rockets’ general manager Darryl Morey.
The Grizzlies lost a highly competitive, scrappy opener tonight down in Houston.
1. Rookie Bigs Blow Up: Who expected O.J. Mayo to be the least impressive rookie on the floor for the Grizzlies tonight? Mayo struggled, but baby bigs Marc Gasol and, especially, Darrell Arthur, were very impressive. Gasol’s gritty 12 point, 12 rebound, 2 block performance, much of garnered while matched up against one of the league’s very best centers in Yao Ming, only underscored what he established in the preseason: That he’s a quality starting center from day one. More impressive was Arthur, who came on late in the preseason and whose role heading into the regular season was uncertain. Arthur was the fourth big man into the game tonight, but once he got on the floor, Marc Iavaroni couldn’t afford to get him off. Arthur played 27 minutes, scoring 11 points on 5-9 shooting, grabbing a game-high 15 rebounds, blocking two shots, and coming up with the highlight-reel assist of the game in the form of an interior bounce pass to Gasol for a lay-up.
Arthur is clearly the most talented power-forward option on the team, but I think everyone realized that before this game. Arthur is also the least experienced on a team already starting two rookies. Iavaroni mentioned the possibility of starting Arthur in my interview with him last week, and there will be plenty of calls for that starting right now. And it might happen in the home opener against an Orlando team that goes small at that position with Rashard Lewis. I certainly Arthur will be the starting power forward on this team at some point, but I also want to see consistency before fully anointing him as the future at that position. Arthur had a reputation in college of being an up-and-down player. He’ll need to overcome that label by disproving it on the court. One good game doesn’t quite do that.
2. No “O”: The Grizzlies offense looked pretty bad tonight. That’s not surprising: The team struggled at that end in the preseason, was starting a line-up with an average age of 22, and was playing a veteran team that’s one of the league’s best defensive squads. But the specifics of the team’s offensive struggles tonight were instructive. There was too much “give the ball to Rudy and get out of the way,” though with O.J. Mayo not finding net (5-20 from the floor, 0-7 from the line) and Mike Conley not being assertive enough, and with no proven options up front, it’s hard to really blame Rudy for that.
Three-point shooting was dismal (0-13). We know that will be a problem all season, though hopefully not one quite that bad. More troubling was that the Grizzlies didn’t make it up from the free-throw line, where the Grizzlies only had 13 attempts to the Rockets 25. Now, obviously, the Rockets have a 7’6” guy under the bucket to discourage penetration, but the Grizzlies simply have to use their team speed to attack the paint this season. That starts with Conley, who simply has to impost himself on the game more than he did tonight. Turnovers were a problem, especially at the beginning of each half. Conley, by far the team’s best ball-handler, had 0 turnovers in 32 minutes, another reason he needs to take on more of the burden as a playmaker.
3. Darko on the Island: Iavaroni said in my interview that Darko Milicic gets in trouble offensively when the team leaves him on an island 18 feet from the basket, with the ball, and that the team needed to avoid putting him in that position. That didn’t happen tonight, as Darko seemed to get more touches on the perimeter than in the paint. Darko had a negligible game all-around, playing only 17 minutes while grabbing 2 rebounds and scoring 2 points. If Gasol and Arthur continue to emerge, Darko will move to a back-up center role, which is more fitting his limited abilities and erratic play at this point.
The Jacob Riis Report: Knucklehead Tiger Cult Hero Joey Dorsey did not see the court tonight, but I did spot an injured Shane Battier rocking his Craig Sager-red jacket on the sidelines.
