As the New Year rings on Thursday, the Grizzlies take a break, catch their breath for a couple of days and then play at home on Friday against the Spurs.
The Grizzlies need the rest. They played four games in five days, losing one in double overtime, followed by another in overtime and the other in Tuesday's fourth quarter fade against the Suns. "You can say we were tired, but you can't use that as an excuse," point guard Mike Conley said. "We came out flat and got it going, but we just couldn't maintain down the stretch."
Grizzlies coach Marc Iavaroni is becoming more exasperated with his team breaking out of the designed offenses, with certain players trying to do their own thing.
"We stop playing as a team after three quarters, put on blinders and everybody starts playing one-on-one trying to make plays by themselves," Iavaroni said.
It's happening more and more often, and it might be the thing that gets Iavaroni fired, though majority owner Michael Heisley has stated he's solidly behind Iavaroni.
SUNS 101, GRIZZLIES 89: The Grizzlies led 79-70 entering the fourth quarter, and then went stone cold on Tuesday night in FedExForum. Memphis missed 15 of its first 18 shots to start the final period, and also missed its last seven shots of the game. The Grizzlies failed to take advantage of the Suns missing starting point guard Steve Nash because of back spasms and power forward Amare Stoudemire, who got ejected with 3:52 left in the second quarter. Stoudemire used an expletive after picking up his third foul. That drew the first technical foul from referee Bill Kennedy, who then issued a second technical foul and ejection after Stoudemire used another expletive.
