Gasol sees Grizzlies’ defense trending in the wrong direction
Marc Gasol admits playing defense is no fun.
But the three-time All-Star and 2013 NBA Defensive Player of the Year loves it. The 33-year-old Memphis Grizzly takes immense pride in that aspect of the game. And he wants those around him to excel on the defensive end.
Which is why he is beginning to get a little ticked off.
Last offseason, the Grizzlies reemphasized their commitment to a defense-first mentality. More often than not this season, it has worked. J.B. Bickerstaff ’s club got off to a 12-5 start that featured a brief appearance atop the Western Conference standings.
Gasol, though, can feel the Grizzlies losing sight of an identity they’ve spent years establishing — despite still leading the NBA in scoring defense (102 points per game allowed). Memphis lost its third consecutive game Tuesday — after leading all three at halftime — and its second in a row where the team was up by at least 10 points in the second half. Through the first 17 games, the team gave up 100-plus points nine times. In its last three games, opponents have averaged 112.3 points.
"I’m not happy, by any means," Gasol said after Tuesday’s loss to the Toronto Raptors. "I’m nowhere near happy with (our defense). You can see the trend. Things don’t happen overnight. You can see it. You can start feeling it. I’m pretty demanding when it comes to defense and I’m the guy behind, so I see a lot of things.
“We all make mistakes. But defensively, I think we’re kind of slipping away in some areas where we should not be slipping away.”
Bickerstaff was asked before the loss to the Raptors whether teams were beginning to adjust to the Grizzlies’ unique brand of basketball. Outside of a couple of instances, he said, not really.
He was asked a similar question following the Toronto game.
“Systematically, I think we’re fine. Obviously, teams do a good job of preparing and studying and seeing what’s going on,” he said. “Tonight, they were creating gaps. But, for the most part, our defense has been solid. We just have to do a better job of executing and taking them out of what they want to do.”
While Gasol agrees with parts of Bickerstaff 's assessment, he also indicates there appears to be more to the Grizzlies' recent issues than merely shortcomings execution-wise.
“We got stretched out a couple times. Sometimes, we overhelped," Gasol said. "Sometimes, we didn’t rotate. Sometimes, we just didn’t know what ... we were doing, it felt like. Sometimes, we just dared them to shoot it and you can’t do that. You’ve gotta trust that somebody else behind you is going to help you. You need five guys and we didn’t have that (Tuesday).”
The Grizzlies have a chance to stem the tide during a two-game road trip at Brooklyn (6:30 p.m. Friday) and Philadelphia (5 p.m. Sunday) — the 15thand 8th-best scoring teams in the league, respectively. Gasol finished Tuesday's game despite rolling his ankle late. But, barring any setbacks, he is not expected to miss any action.
Memphis is tied for last in points per game, but Gasol believes a consistent winner can be built despite that, as long as defense remains the focus.
“Everybody talks about their offense," Gasol said about Golden State. "Their defense, when they’re all locked in, they’re pretty damn good defensively. When you talk about San Antonio and all those winning teams, the top teams, the great teams, they all had that defensive mindset. With talent, you get all the points. But it doesn’t take a lot of talent to play defense. It’s more of a mindset. It’s sacrificing. It’s effort and it’s preparation as well.”