Shorthanded Memphis Grizzlies lose to the OKC Thunder 106-89

With Rudy Gay traded to the Raptors and his replacement, Tayshaun Prince not arriving yet, the Memphis Grizzlies were shorthanded as the OKC Thunder handed them a 106-89 loss. The Grizzlies were also lighter in the luxury tax department as they won’t have to pay the $4 million in luxury tax this season with the trades they have made. The Thunder came in 19-3 at home and extended that streak to 20-3.

Here are the talking points from this game:

Kendrick Perkins

This could have been a chance for the Memphis Grizzlies to show up someone who had blasted their recent trade publicly. “Wow that was 1 crazy trade today,” Oklahoma City center Kendrick Perkins tweeted. “Are you serious Rudy Gay is right there under KD (Kevin Durant), Lebron, Kobe and Melo (Carmelo Anthony). (hashtag)badtrade.”

That should have got the Grizzlies riled up and frothing at the mouth at a chance to steal the thunder of the Thunder. Instead Perkins committed 5 fouls on them, got 7 points and 7 rebounds in 26 minutes of action.

Second movement

The Rudy Gay trade was the second in a week, which the Grizzlies made. Since they had traded Speights away, they were 3-1, and in the game vs Philadelphia, it was Rudy Gay who hit the game winning jumper with 13.3 seconds left, which they won 103-100. They played shorthanded with only 9 players at the start of this game.

Kevin Durant torches the bears

The super-scorer is averaging 30.2 points versus Memphis Grizzlies in his last fifteen regular season games against them. He finished with 27 points on 10 of 16 shooting. One way Durant gets a lot of easy buckets is by getting to the free throw line. He got to the line 9 times and converted on 7 of those trips.

File photo: RW & KD

Westbrook almost gets a triple double

Russell Westbrook shot 9 of 17 for 21 points and had 9 rebounds and 6 assists. He is pretty far from your traditional point guard. His exceptional athleticism allows him to chase down rebounds and his scorer’s mentality ensures that he will take more shots than he hands out assists almost every night. But that makes Kevin Durant all the more lethal as teams will ignore his teammates at their own peril. Teams know that the ball is handled primarily by a conscious-less scorer masquerading as their point guard. He had some ugly moments in this game as he yelled at his teammates to get open at to his coach about getting pizza rolls after the game or something. But that unpredictability is what makes him dangerous.

Distribution

The OKC Thunder distributed the ball well, totaling 25 assists to 19 of the Grizzlies. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant had 6 assists a piece. The Memphis Grizzlies on the other hand only had 19 assists with Bayless leading the way with 6 dimes.

Zach Randolph eats rebounds

Nineteen, count them. Zach Randolph grabbed 19 rebounds in total, 9 on the offensive glass. But he shot horrendously, going 4 of 17 from the field, for 9 points. He did add 2 assists and 3 steals to the mix.

Double figure scoring

Three players finished in double figures for the Memphis Grizzlies. Marc Gasol had 16 points but he only shot 6 of 15 from the floor with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. He also had 4 turnovers. Bayless was the top scorer with 23 points and Michael Conley added 17 points.

For the Thunder, Durant had 27, Westbrook 21, Kevin Martin 16 and Nick Collison 12. The Thunder as a team shot 55.6% from the floor as opposed to a paltry 34.7% of the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies shot themselves in the foot with 25 three point attempts of which they only converted 6. The Thunder went 5 of 14 from downtown.

Road ahead

Memphis Grizzlies will be playing five of its next seven games at home and four of those against teams with a losing record. So they will have ample opportunity to accommodate Tayshaun Prince in the lineup. The Thunder improved to 35-11 and dropped the Grizzlies to 29-16.