As a rule, you don’t win many basketball games when your opponent shoots 70 percent from the floor. The Grizzlies found that out the hard way, again, on Friday as the Charlotte Bobcats stormed out of the gate and thoroughly whipped them 112-83.
The Bobcats (9-18) opened the game by shooting 72 percent in the first quarter and finished the game at 66 percent, while knocking down only 65 percent of their free throw attempts.
The loss replaced an earlier home rout at the hands of the New York Knicks, who used a superhuman effort from 3-point range to embarrass the Grizzlies, as the team’s worst loss of the season. The Bobcats just ran through the Grizzlies and overpowered them with their size.
The most obvious evidence of that was the fact that the Grizzlies (9-17) grabbed exactly six total rebounds in the first half. Both teams shot the ball pretty well, so there weren’t a whole lot of rebounds to be had, but the Bobcats ended up with 90 percent of them. For the game, the Bobcats won the battle of the boards 41-23. The Grizzlies were outplayed and outhustled by a team they could have beaten. For all the pregame talk from the Grizzlies about how they were eager to put Tuesday’s loss behind them and start a new winning streak, it just seemed like the Bobcats felt they had more to prove.
Boris Diaw, Gerald Wallace and Emeka Okafor gave the Bobcats an almost unfair advantage inside as they accounted for 73 points and 26 rebounds. Those three dominated action in the paint, and there was little Darko Milicic and Co. could do about it. Diaw led the Bobcats with 26 points while Okafor added 25 and Wallace added 22.
The Grizzlies shot 43 percent for the game, including 19 percent from 3-point range. Once they fell behind, most of their attempts seemed to come from long range.
Marc Gasol was a non-factor, scoring nine points on 3-of-10 shooting. O.J. Mayo saw his career-launching 25-game streak of scoring in double figures end as he managed only seven points on 2-of-10 shooting. Rudy Gay hit 7-of-10 shots to lead the team with 17 points, while Milicic was the only other Grizzly to reach double figures.
With nowhere to go but up from this performance it is a sure bet the Grizzlies will play better against the Lakers on Monday. I think the couple of days off will do them some good. This is one of those losses you can toss out for the most part because it is not a measure of where the team is performance-wise. The Grizzlies know they are better than this game made them seem, and not every opponent is going to be as hot as the Bobcats were.
