Memphis Grizzlies

A quick look at the key players and stats for the Grizzlies and Utah

Grizzlies head coach Marc Iavaroni emphasized a few points before his team endeavored to keep the Dallas Mavericks winless at home.

They share a close friendship, an alma mater and similar basketball philosophies. Tonight, though, Marc Iavaroni and Rick Carlisle will be first-time enemies.

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It seems like the entire world and their mother is under the impression that Memphis GM Chris Wallace just pawned off Pau Gasol to the Lakers for Kwame Brown's expiring contract and nothing more last January.

Please, for the love of everything good and holy left fighting for on this earth, let's dispel this myth right now.

The name "Marc" may not trump "Pau" when "Gasol" comes up in word association games, but Marc Gasol could be far more relevant long after his older brother has retired from the game.

The Grizzlies got the rights to Little Gasol (if you can call the hulking 7'1", 265-pound Marc Gasol that) back in January, but he was viewed at largely as a throw-in.

After making a mark in the Beijing Games for the Spanish team this past summer, the 23-year old Marc Gasol has come in as a rookie in Memphis and put up 12.0 points and 7.7 boards in his first 10 games in the NBA. And this is for a guy who was a late second-round pick in 2007.

On top of that, the Grizzlies have Gasol at a dirt-cheap rookie contract. While the older Gasol is making eight figures in the prime of his career, this Gasol is young enough to align his career symmetry with fellow Memphis stars O.J. Mayo and Rudy Gay.

His cheap deal also allows Wallace to be a player in free agency for the next several summers before locking up his version of the "Big Three" when the time comes.

Younger Gasol has been everything that his brother was when he came into the league - with less than half the hype and the salary. Marc is shooting 56.4 percent from the field, averaging a block per game, and put up a monster 27-point, 16-rebound game earlier this month in just his fourth contest in the NBA, a 90-79 Grizzlies win.

He even came right out of the gate firing by logging a double-double in his first game as a pro, posting 12 points and 12 boards against the competitive Houston Rockets to start of his rookie campaign.

While Mayo and Gay have combined to start forming what could be one of the most devastating 1-2 punches in the league, Gasol has complemented the two perimeter players nicely with a good low-post game and an affinity to do the dirty work.

It took his older brother several years to shed the "soft" label and become the bruiser that he is today with the Lakers, but Marc Gasol has already shown that he has the attitude and the edge to bang bodies inside and do what it takes to do his job every night.

Kwame Brown's contract is long gone, but don't you dare make the mistake of thinking of him as the key piece Wallace targeted in January. The Grizzlies GM pretty much cloned Pau, made him five years younger, and cut his salary by over 90 percent.

So why do people keep taking shots at Wallace and talk about him as if they could do his job better?

If you read and listen to the mass media that covers the league (even casually), you'd be convinced that the Grizzlies got Brown from Pau Gasol and absolutely nothing else.

You'd ignore the fact that Marc Gasol is developing just as well as his older brother did in the same city seven years ago.

You'd ignore the fact that Wallace saved a ton of cash to lay the groundwork for a dynamic young nucleus, and he will have a ton of money to throw around as well as draft picks to keep adding to this young Memphis team.

With Pau Gasol, Wallace would have just kept treading water given the older Gasol's age and massive contract. With the 23-year old Marc Gasol, who is playing for the NBA equivalent of slave wages due to his status as a second-round pick, the Grizzlies finally have a vision and a future along with a familiar name to carry them into the next phase of their franchise.

Maybe the Lakers will continue to prove that they won this trade in the end. Maybe Pau Gasol will help Kobe Bryant win that elusive fourth championship ring. And maybe Marc Gasol will continue to be known as Pau's little brother.

But until then, recognize this right now: Chris Wallace has set up the Memphis Grizzlies for an incredibly successful run in the years to come. And it's why he - and not the fans that think he only got Kwame Brown in return - is running an NBA team.

Good day ladies and gents, It's the Sinister Denizen of the Darkside LDizzle here to bring you the news from around the sports world. As always, we bring it to you unfiltered and fair and balanced. That means equal opportunity offending with some less equal offending reserved for certain teams and individuals as I see fit. Tonight! Mormons hate gay people. Could you be next? Moron that later. Does Hockey still exist? We will check in with several historians to find out. Are the Raiders going to the Superbowl this year? And can Al Davis can afford all of the tickets? Can the Raiders reconstruct their 4th quarter preseason roster? Greyson Gunheim says "Yes". If my Viagra pen ran out of ink, would that be the definition of irony? THIS is The Not Necessarily Incorrect Daily Update News!

The Memphis Grizzles fell Sunday night to the Denver Nuggets, 100-90 in a night that saw the Grizzlies stay in the contest all night, despite shooting struggles, before the Nuggets pulled away in the middle of the fourth quarter.

Those shooting struggled did not apply to O.J. Mayo early though, as he scored 26 points in the game's first 17 minutes.  This included 20 first quarter points to help the Grizzlies get off to a 34-28 lead.  Mayo's was absolutely on first to start the game, making his first four shots, three of which were three-pointers, and 8/9 first quarter shots, including all three of his three-pointers.  Overall, Mayo's 26 points came on 9/12 FG, 3/4 3-PT FG, and 4/4 FT.

After the final of these buckets, a three-pointer with 4:51 left in the second quarter, the Grizzlies had a 47-40 advantage.  But the Nuggets immediately answered with an 11-0 run to take a 51-47 lead with 2:14 remaining in the first half.  This run was made worse by the fact that Mayo had to be taken out after picking up his third foul on an offensive foul with 2:56 remaining and Memphis down by two.

The Grizzlies would have to rely on their defense the rest of the game to remain in it, and the game was finally blown out of proportions when the Nuggets used a 14-4 run midway through the fourth quarter after a Darrell Arthur jumper had cut the Denver lead to two at 78-76 with 9:30 left.  But the Nuggets answered by virtually putting the game away over the next 4:47, which featured a Memphis scoring drought of 1:32 in which the Nuggets finished it with a 7-0 run finished off by two Rendaldo Balkman free throws with 4:59 left in the fourth quarter.  The final score, 100-90, would be the closest the Grizzlies got over the remainder of the game.

The biggest problem tonight was that the Grizzlies, sans Mayo in the first half, struggled shooting the ball all night.  Rudy Gay led Memphis in this category, as he scored 16 points, but on 4/17 shooting from the field, including missing all seven of his three-pointers.  Half of Rudy's points came at the free throw line, and he also led the Grizzlies with 6 turnovers on the night.  Rudy did add 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks but his woeful shooting night was made worse by the fact he kept shooting.  In fact, Rudy and Mayo attempted over half the Grizzlies shots for the game, and the fact that Mayo cooled off in the second half (5 points- 2/9 FG) didn't help much.  Darrell Arthur added 10 points(4/7 FG, 2/3 FT), 4 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 blocks- but the fact that his 7 attempts were the third most shot attempts on the team showed just how much Rudy and Mayo dominated the ball.

The Nuggets featured a more balanced scoring effort, with Carmelo Anthony leading the way with 24 points (7/17 FG, 10/10 FT), 8 rebounds, and 3 assists- with 10 of his points coming in the decisive fourth quarter.  Nene added 18 points (8/10 FG, 2/5 FT) and 12 rebounds, while Dahntay Jones scored 11 points (5/7 FG) against his former team.  Renaldo Balkman also came up big in the fourth quarter, with 7 of his 12 points (5/9 FG) coming in the final quarter.

Memphis did do a good job defensively all night, especially containing newly-acqured Chauncey Billups (16 points [2/13 FG, 2/6 3-PT FG, 10/11 FT], 10 assists, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals) and Linus Kleiza (12 points [4/10 FG, 2/6 3-PT FG, 2/7 FT] and 9 rebounds).  But it just wasn't enough, and the Nuggets finally broke out in the fourth quarter led by Anthony and Balkman, who did a good job at doing the dirty work around the rim. 

This tough loss was coming off a rare road victory for the Grizzlies, as they defeated the Golden State Warriors for the second time in a week, this time in Oakland 109-104 on Friday night.  The Warriors were without Al Harrington (sore back) and Corey Maggette (strained left hamstring), but the Grizzlies did another great job forcing the Warriors' remaining stars to low shooting percentages.

Stephen Jackson led the way with 27 points (9/21 FG, 0/6 3-PT FG, 9/13 FT), 4 rebounds and 3 assists.  Andris Biedrins again had another solid day, adding 23 points (7/13 FG, 9/10 FT) and 12 rebounds, while Kelenna Azubuike added 21 points (8/16 FG, 2/5 3-PT FG, 3/4 FT) and 6 rebounds before fouling out.  Beyond this trio, though, no other Golden State player was in double figures.

The Grizzlies, meanwhile, featured a more balanced scoring effort led by Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo his 23 points (8/20 FG, 2/7 3-PT FG, 5/6 FT) and 4 rebounds.  Mayo, meanwhile, added 20 points (8/19 FG, 1/4 3-PT FG, 3/4 FT), 9 rebounds, and 4 assists.  While Rudy and Mayo didn't have the best shooting nights, his teammates did a better job of supporting him, led by Hakim Warrick off the bench.  Warrick had 19 points (7/12 FG, 5/6 FT) and 10 rebounds as Memphis went with a smaller line-up against the fast, undersized Warriors.  Darrell Arthur added 13 points (5/13 FG, 3/4 FT) and 12 rebounds of his own, while Mike Conley added 10 points (4/7 FG) and 6 assists as the Grizzlies more balanced scoring was the difference.

This contest also featured Memphis overcoming adversity in the fourth quarter and pulling out a close victory.  The Grizzlies started the quarter expanding their advantage, with Rudy Gay hit a jumper with 8:13 left in the final quarter to push their lead to 93-81.  But the Grizzlies would go on a torid 14-1 run over the next 2:34 to gain a 95-94 lead, capped off by a Biedrins three-point play.  We'd all seen this storyline before so many times last season, the young Grizzlies blowing a lead in the fourth quarter to lose a contest they were in all game in heart-breaking fashion down the stretch.

However, this year's Grizzlies, as they did on Halloween against Orlando, didn't fold- instead they instantly went on a run of their own, a 7-1 one over the next 3:29 to gain a 101-96 lead with 2:10 left on a Warrick slam off a nice feed from Conley.  Stephen Jackson would drive to the hoop for a lay-up with 1:19 left to pull Golden State back to within one possession, but Rudy Gay would nail a three-pointer with 50 seconds left to put the game out of reach.