Z-Bo bruises Pistons to spark Griz victory
Veteran dominates inside with 22 boards
GRIZZLIES 95, PISTONS 88
On a football Saturday in SEC country, Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger believes he got to watch a pretty good fullback on the basketball court.
Veteran forward Zach Randolph put muscle in a ground-and-pound game by grabbing 22 rebounds Saturday night as the Grizzlies overpowered the Detroit Pistons for a 95-88 victory in FedExForum.
“He gets into his 25th run of the game and he just wears you down,” Joerger said of Randolph. “He wears down multiple people at a time. You get to that point and you’re just like, ‘I don’t want any more of you.’ He’s as good at what he does as anybody in the game. I can’t think of another who can do what he does around the basket and in close quarters in hand-to-hand combat.”
Randolph grabbed 20 or more rebounds in a game for the 14th time in his career. He’s achieved the mark on 11 occasions with the Grizzlies — this time, helping the franchise continue its fast start with the best record (9-1) in the NBA.
Randolph retrieved most of his own misses. He scored 17 points but shot just 7 of 22 from the field. Still, the Griz needed his work ethic in the paint on a night they shot 37 percent.
“I just go out there and play hard. I didn’t have a good shooting night, so I did other things like playing defense and rebounding,” said Randolph, who had a career-high 13 offensive rebounds. “We knew we had our hands full, so guys just came out and played.”
Marc Gasol led the Griz with 23 points, and Mike Conley’s 18 points rounded out a productive night for the team’s Big Three.
Rebounding has been a mild concern for the Griz this season. They were beaten 44-30 on the glass last Thursday in a win against the Sacramento Kings. Randolph, though, helped the Griz control this one from start to finish.
Memphis only trailed a total of 49 seconds against Detroit in large part because of ball control. Randolph just kept getting the basketball back for the Griz.
“He works hard for the ball,” Conley said. “It might seem easy, but he’s pushing a lot of guys around and he’s being physical.”
Pistons forward Josh Smith had the unenviable task of wrestling with Randolph under the boards most of the night.
“He’s one of the best to ever do it,” Smith said. “You need everyone to try and get the rebound in situations like that because he’s so strong. And he does a good job of getting in position to get offensive rebounds. He has a knack for it.”
The Pistons entered as the league’s sixth-best offensive rebounding team. Detroit had two doubledigit rebounders in Greg Monroe (11) and Andre Drummond (10), but Memphis won the rebounding battle, 53- 43.
Detroit’s starters struggled mightily against Memphis’ defense and needed Kyle Singler’s 21 points off the bench to stay in the game.
The Griz led by 11 points in the first half and matched that advantage when Courtney Lee made a layup with four minutes left in the fourth quarter.
“This was a good game,” Joerger said. “The most complete game that we have played from start to finish.”
Tip-ins: The Griz have won 19 straight regularseason home games dating back to last season. … Memphis has a 10-game winning streak over Detroit. … Randolph’s last 22-rebound game had been Dec. 4, 2012, against Phoenix.