San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Grizzlies bringing fire for Warriors
The quote, written in big white letters on a blackboard, greeted Memphis Grizzlies players in the team weight room this past summer: “Memphis is going to get their reality check.”
Someone in the organization had put up those words from a recent episode of Draymond Green’s podcast as motivation. But when Memphis forward Jaren Jackson Jr. revealed the message in an August TikTok video, he wasn’t trying to motivate. He was merely adding fuel to a public back-and-forth that dates back almost 3½ years.
The jabs between the Golden State Warriors and Grizzlies have ranged from subtle to blatant, rippling through social media and reminding NBA fans of the obvious: These two teams really don’t like each other. It was no surprise, then, when the league announced little more than a week after Jackson’s viral video that Grizzlies-Warriors would be one of its primetime games on Christmas.
As their drama-filled duel in May’s Western Conference semifinals illustrated, this matchup has almost all the makings of a modern-day rivalry. Two of the game’s biggest names. The time-honored story line of the old guard against the new guard. And perhaps most important, enough bad blood to make a reality-TV producer jealous.
The only thing keeping this from becoming a bona fide rivalry is a history of meetings on the biggest stages. By outlasting the Grizzlies in the second round this past spring, the Warriors provided an appetizer to the seemingly inevitable entrée of conference-finals matchups.
Yet, here Golden State is well more than a third of the way through the season, 11th in the Western Conference standings at 15-18 as it braces for another three or so weeks without the injured Stephen Curry. Barring major improvement from their bench and defense, the Warriors could face long odds to make merely the play-in round when Curry returns.
That harsh reality has sucked much of the excitement out of a matchup that not long ago looked like the must-watch game of the NBA’s showcase day. Instead of hearing “rivalry” chatter, the Warriors enter Christmas being reminded of their unmet expectations.
As Golden State has regressed this season, the Grizzlies have cemented themselves as contenders. Their plus-4.2 point differential ranks third in the conference despite Jackson and Desmond Bane, two key starters, missing extensive time with injuries. Currently tied for the West lead with Denver at 20-11, the Grizzlies are favored by both FiveThirtyEight and ESPN’s Basketball Power Index to secure the No. 1 seed.
This is a credit to their adaptability. After ranking 29th out of 30 teams in 3-point frequency last season, the Grizzlies surrounded Ja Morant with more knockdown shooters and placed a greater emphasis on the 3-point arc. Through Thursday, they were 12th in 3point frequency. Forced to guard the perimeter more, defenses have allowed Morant wider driving lanes.
Given that none of their top seven scorers is are older than 26, the Grizzlies appear wellpositioned for a long reign at or near the top of the West. The question is whether the Warriors can recover from their early swoon and start to become a rival worthy of Memphis.
Six months removed from its fourth title in eight years, Golden State is teetering on the brink of a lost season. Even before Curry suffered a left shoulder injury Dec. 14 in Indiana, the Warriors were glaringly average. Now, after a 1-5 trip that ended with back-to-back losses in New York by a combined 68 points, they are a full-blown punch line.
During an almost two-minute-long
rant on ESPN’s “First Take” Thursday morning, Stephen A. Smith called the Warriors “a disgrace” and “embarrassing.” “Where the hell are the Golden State Warriors?” he said. “There should be an APB out for them right now. Where are they?”
Many of them have been on the bench in street clothes. With Klay Thompson sitting the back end of a back-to-back Wednesday, the Warriors had only 10 players available against the Nets.
However, no number of injuries can explain away the nightmare that unfolded at Barclays Center: a 29-point deficit in the first quarter, a 40-point hole at halftime, 21 turnovers — many of which were unforced. Most of the Warriors’ youngsters
look unprepared for rotation roles. It doesn’t help Golden State that a strong dynastic defense has given way to botched rotations, ball-watching and wide-open driving lanes.
Still, the Warriors have cause for optimism. There’s a chance Thompson, Andrew Wiggins (adductor strain), JaMychal Green (health and safety protocols) and Donte DiVincenzo (illness) are all back for the start of an eight-game homestand Sunday. If the Warriors can just stay around .500 in Curry’s absence, they should still have a shot in a muddled West.
Only three games separate Golden State and sixth-place Sacramento. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Warriors coalesce at just the right time and make a playoff
run, especially if they can preserve energy by avoiding the play-in round.
A nationally televised win over the Grizzlies on Christmas might be the kick-start Golden State needs. Aside from the heightened stakes of the NBA’s biggest regular-season viewership day, beating Memphis seems to mean just a bit more to the Warriors.
Since Andre Iguodala refused to play for the Grizzlies after Golden State dumped his contract to Memphis as part of the Kevin Durant sign-andtrade with Brooklyn in summer 2019, the bad blood between the Warriors and Grizzlies has increased.
Just look at the past nine months. After Memphis’ blowout win over Golden State in late March, Jackson changed his Twitter avatar to a photo of guard De’Anthony Melton dunking on Golden State center Kevon Looney. Jackson’s first tweet with the new profile picture? “Strength in numbers,” with a clapping-hands emoji.
This helped set the tone for an epic matchup in the West semifinals. In the span of six games, Draymond Green got ejected for a flagrant-2 foul on Brandon Clarke; Steve Kerr criticized Dillon Brooks for having “broken the code” with a hit that injured Gary Payton II; Taylor Jenkins blamed Jordan Poole for injuring Morant, and Memphis fans celebrated a 55point rout of the Warriors by singing Memphis’ unofficial anthem of “Whoop That Trick.”
The animosity spilled into the offseason. During his postgame news conference after the Warriors’ championshipclinching win over the Celtics, Thompson called Jackson a “freakin’ bum” for that “Strength in numbers” tweet. In late June, after going back and forth with Morant on Twitter, Green was asked about the Grizzlies’ penchant for trash talk.
“They’re going to get their reality check,” Green said. “They’re going to realize how much harder it is for them to win. Because they’re talking the way they’re talking, they better lose that (obliviousness), because they better understand these moments now are huge.”
The sound bite offered the Grizzlies blackboard material. But as their much anticipated Christmas matchup looms, the Warriors are the ones getting the reality check.
This doesn’t mean NBA fans will suffer Sunday. When two teams that clearly don’t like each other meet on a big stage, anything can happen. Call it an almost rivalry.