If anybody on the Grizzlies has benefited from the coaching change to Lionel Hollins, it's rookie forward Darrell Arthur.
Arthur's game grew stagnant in the last couple of months as the Grizzlies' offense devolved into a deliberate, half-court mess after the team started the season tearing up and down the court. But Hollins wants everyone to run, including his bigs, and that has given Arthur new life.
"We're all basically trying to get in the shape Coach wants us to be in so I can run the floor and play the way he wants us to," said Arthur, who has averaged 29 minutes per game -- 10 more than his season average -- since coach Marc Iavaroni was fired. "They're teaching me a lot of post-ups, and I'm driving to the (basket) more."
Hollins said he basically wants to see if Arthur can play. Even in Saturday's loss to the Lakers, Hollins did not yank Arthur from the game when he made a couple of mistakes.
"He's an athletic power forward, he rebounds and he tries to do the right thing," Hollins said of Arthur. "I just made a decision when I came in that these are the guys I'm going to start with and everything else will filter down."
LAKERS 115, GRIZZLIES 98: The Grizzlies treated their first sellout home crowd of the year to a great first half, putting up 61 points in the opening two quarters. Then the Lakers decided to play defense, smothering the Grizzlies all over the place. The Lakers forced 23 turnovers leading to 39 points.
The Lakers dominated inside, even without center Andrew Bynum, who hurt his knee (diagnosed as a sprain with an MRI to come soon) in a first-quarter collision with teammate Kobe Bryant. They didn't even need a big game from Bryant.
The Grizzlies needed to do a better job in the second half getting the ball to rookie O.J. Mayo, who scored 15 of his 22 points in the first half.
