When Lionel Hollins took over as head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies in 2009, he developed a culture that would define the franchise for years to come. The miserly, acerbic Hollins was as old-school as they get, and he followed a simple basketball philosophy: punish your opponents on defense, slow it down on the other end, and pound them into submission in the post with your two best frontcourt players.
It was an equation that brought a level of success the organization had never seen. It didn’t result in a championship, but then again, it’s hard to win an NBA championship. It did, however, result in several consecutive playoff berths, including multiple seven-game bloodbaths against the Western Conference elite (the Thunder, the Clippers) and an unlikely run to the Conference Finals in 2013.
It was more than enough to justify their increasingly-anachronistic style of play, not to mention Hollins’ irascible temperament. In the process, it galvanized their fan base. Rarely has a professional sports team so perfectly embodied the blue-collar ethos of its hardscrabble city.
Hollins’ prickly personality eventually got him ousted from the job, but the architect behind their stifling defense, Dave Joerger, carried the torch valiantly for a few more years. Toward the end of last season, however, the Grit n’ Grind Grizzlies appeared to be sounding their death knell.
Joerger had already been experimenting with bringing Zach Randolph off the bench to give their lumbering offense a much-needed jolt, and when he left to take the head coaching job in Sacramento in the offseason, it seemed a comprehensive overhaul was in order.
The Grizz brought in Chandler Parsons in free agency to add some scoring punch to the starting the lineup, and nobody had much of a clue exactly what rookie head coach Dave Fizdale would bring to the table. Early on, it was clear there was a new emphasis on scoring, which had long been the proverbial albatross around their neck.
There was no better indication of this than Marc Gasol, who quickly equaled and exceeded the total number of three-pointers made for his entire career over the first eight games of the season. And it wasn’t just Gasol. Mike Conley was taking and making more three-pointers, at Fizdale’s behest, and generally being more aggressive on offense.
Memphis had finally joined the revolution.
The Grit ‘N Grind Grizzlies, who had unleashed hell in the Western Conference playoffs for more than five straight seasons with their unrelenting style, were moving firmly into the space-and-pace era. It invoked feelings of great ambivalence among legions of fans who had dared to find the beauty in their ugly brand of basketball, who had relished their demoralizing efforts on defense and suffered through their Sisyphean struggle to put points on the board.
But the revolution would be short-lived. Just as Conley — fresh off of landing the most lucrative contract in league history — was playing the best basketball of his career (19.2 points and 5.7 assists per game) and seemed destined for his inaugural All-Star appearance, tragedy struck. In a game against Charlotte on Nov. 28, he suffered multiple fractures to his lower vertebrae and was expected to miss at least 6-8 weeks.
Nobody could’ve predicted what happened next. Instead of treading water — or sinking to the lowest depths — the Grizzlies rattled off six straight wins, largely because of their renewed emphasis on stopping their opponents. During that streak, Gasol re-established himself as not only one of the top centers in the league, but arguably a top 10 player overall, averaging 25.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 5.3 assists and earning Western Conference Player of the Week honors through December 11.
He did it all while anchoring the NBA’s stingiest defense (99.7 points allowed per 100 possessions). He’s had help from long-time defensive stalwart Tony Allen, who’s back to his old pestering ways but who has also played well offensively for Memphis in Conley’s absence. Going into Tuesday’s loss against the Cavs, the Grindfather was averaging 13.2 points, 7.7 rebounds, and two steals per game during their streak on better than 56 percent shooting from the field.
But just as in years past, their scoring has taken a giant leap back. They’re currently the third-worst offensive team in the NBA, and they’re playing at the league’s third-slowest pace (95.84 possessions per 48 minutes). That includes a negative net rating (-0.4) that is partially a byproduct of several close wins in the last two weeks. Before their 21-point drubbing of the Warriors last Saturday, their combined differential in five of the six games during their streak was a whopping 13 points.
All of this has been born out of necessity, and Conley’s return is still a long way off. Whether it’s sustainable is anybody’s guess. Some of that success since Conley’s injury can be attributed to a relatively-soft schedule: five of those teams were below .500 for the season. After back-to-back games against Cleveland this week (they had the benefit of playing the second one without seeing LeBron, Kyrie Irving, or Kevin Love), they won’t face much of a gauntlet until early January, when they play the Clippers, Warriors, Jazz, Thunder, Rockets, and Bulls all within an 11-day span.
If everything goes according to plan, that should coincide with Conley’s return sometime around Martin Luther King Day. The Grizzlies are still waiting on several other key players to get healthy as well, including Parsons, Vince Carter, and James Ennis. It could be some time before we find out exactly what the new-look Grizzlies are going to be. In the meantime, they’re falling back on precisely what’s got them this far in the first place.
