The Grizzlies shrugged off the Hornets

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Published: April 10, 2011

In a repeat of the last game between these two teams, the Grizzlies simply outmuscled the Hornets all game long.  The Memphis bigs fought their way to superior position, and when they were rarely stymied, Grizzly wing players simply muscled their way to the basket and hit an array of sometimes easy, sometimes stupid shots – or got fouled.  When the Grizzlies complemented their interior dominance in the third by drilling their long range shots and fast-breaking the Hornets off turnovers, the game was over.

The fouling was a bit of an issue all game long.  Landry was so overmatched on the inside it was ridiculous.  Gray came in and gave the Hornets some size, but his fouling was possibly worse, so that didn’t help at all.  Okafor, being forced to cover two big men who were both bigger than him, then succumbed to the same fouling issues.

Of course, the ugliest part of the game was the goose egg in the scoring column next to Chris Paul’s name.  I don’t care if the Grizzlies were keying two defenders on him all game, when Paul scores nothing, there is no chance the Hornets were pulling a tough game out.  He even missed his two free throws.  Of course, it seemed every Hornet missed two free throws.  At least.

If Marco hadn’t opened the game hitting his shots from deep, I cringe to think what the final score might have looked like.  It was too bad that the Grizzlies adjusted to him in the second half and weren’t giving him a crack of space to launch from deep, rendering him ineffective.

That’s it.  Hornets look to bounce back at home against Utah tomorrow night and hope for a Portland loss in the Trailblazers last two games of the regular season so they can once again be back in the driver’s seat for the 6th seed.

At least Patrick Ewing, Jr. scored.

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