Grizzlies Preview

This is my first real post as a blogger for this wonderful site. I hope you guys enjoy my blogs and more importantly let’s kick off with a win tonight. Please?

Now in anticipation for tonight’s matchup it’s only right that we look at the teams, hey? First of all, your New Orleans Hornets. Sitting at the bottom of the Western Conference with a pitiful 3-10 record, a home game like this could be what we need to get started. The team has so far shown some good fight but poor execution has to be the main poison so far.

Sometimes, it’s like watching my school team play, and that’s being nice.

We were held to our lowest point total of the season on Monday night, scoring just 35 points in the first half on 39% shooting. We also turned the ball over 19 times. 19 times. A hugely disappointing stat within that is the fact that the Hornets shot 0-9 from behind the arc. Say we hit 5 of 9 instead; we would have won the game.

Admittedly, the Blazers weren’t at their best but I remember thinking to myself when the game was progressing: “We’ve got a real chance to win here”, but instead we are left to reflect on a standard loss to one of the leagues ‘better teams’. But what do we have to be optimistic about? Well not much to be brutally honest. Gordon is still out, as is Ariza, and Monty Williams has even admitted that the players aren’t taking it seriously and playing to their paycheck.

He said: "We've hit a funk. There's no denying that. But you have to continue to compete. We get to play basketball and we get paid. ... A lot of people would love to have our problems. ... You've got to keep fighting and value your occupation and take it seriously."

And in the other corner, the visiting Memphis Grizzlies. With a 6-6 record, the Grizzlies have struggled on the road with a 1-4 start away from the Fed. In some of those performances, the Grizzlies have been poor.

Like wow-I-can’t-believe-you-lot-made-it-to-the-conference-finals poor.

But they definitely weren’t poor on Monday night. Beating the Chicago Bulls at home by a score of 102-86, the Grizzlies looked damn brilliant. Sure, the Bulls were sloppy, tired etc. but the fact of the matter remains that they crushed one of the favourites for this year. Rudy Gay was on fire, scoring 24 points on 11-18 shooting, and Gasol was deadly adding 19 to the Grizzlies total.

They come to the Hive on the back of a 3-wins-out-of-4 home stand, in the last 3 games of which they had built double digit leads by half-time. Let’s face it; the Grizzlies are beginning to look like the team that graced our eyes last year.

Expect Memphis to continue their new-found momentum and pile more misery onto the seemingly stung Hornets.Attachment 3389

Prediction: HORNETS 84-97 GRIZZLIES

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