Grizzlies Fall 107-103 to Pacers for Second Straight Loss

Ty Jerome’s floater with 28.2 seconds left pulled the Memphis Grizzlies within 104-103 Wednesday night at FedExForum. On the next trip, Pascal Siakam found Aaron Nesmith in the corner, and the Indiana Pacers left with a 107-103 win.

Cam Spencer fouled Nesmith on the shot, and Nesmith missed the free throw with 13.8 seconds left. Cedric Coward then missed two 3-point attempts, the second with 2.2 seconds on the clock.

The Grizzlies (6-2) have lost two straight since opening the season 6-0. New Orleans beat them 135-134 in overtime at FedExForum on Monday.

Jerome and Coward scored 23 points apiece. Jerome shot 10-of-20 from the field and 2-of-10 from 3-point range. Coward made 4 of his 12 3-point tries and added 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals.

Zach Edey had 11 points and 13 rebounds. Jerami Grant scored 11 off the bench, and Spencer handed out 9 assists.

Indiana (3-6) snapped a five-game losing streak. Andrew Nembhard led the Pacers with 22 points, Siakam scored 20 on 8-of-13 shooting, and Nesmith finished with 16.

Memphis led 91-86 after a Coward step-back 3 with 6:17 to play. Quenton Jackson’s pull-up started an 8-0 Indiana run, and Obi Toppin finished it with 6 straight points on two free throws, an alley-oop dunk, and a fast-break dunk. Edey answered with a dunk, but Jackson’s 3 with 3:47 left made it 97-93.

Siakam and Nesmith were both on the bench for that stretch. Nesmith sat from 7:11 to 2:12 and Siakam from 6:52 to 2:12, and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said the rest had them fresh for the finish.

“They were, and I forget exactly who was in the game, but I do know that Nesmith and Pascal were out,” Carlisle said. “And so it was a very important stretch because Aaron and Pascal are two of our main finishers, and that allowed them to be fresh coming into the last three and a half minutes. Needed everybody. No two ways about it.”

At 3:01, Cameron Boozer threw a pass that Nembhard stole, and Larry Nance Jr. dunked at the other end for a 99-95 lead. Siakam scored Indiana’s next 5 points, the last on a free throw with 1:04 left that made it 104-98.

Boozer’s 3 off a Jerome pass cut it to three with 46 seconds left. After Nesmith was called for an offensive foul, Jerome’s floater made it a one-point game.

Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo said Memphis had no timeouts left when Indiana took the ball back with 28.2 seconds to play.

“So the possession started with four-second differential,” Iisalo said. “We were out of timeouts in that situation. Three possible scenarios there. We can foul, put them on the free throw line. We could let them bleed out the clock, which means if they put the shot up with, let’s say, five seconds, we have to get the ball up in three seconds. Or we could try to get them to take an early shot by trapping the ball, which they did. Unfortunately, they made the shot.”

The teams combined for 16 lead changes and 9 ties. Memphis’ biggest lead was 8, built on a 12-2 run early in the third quarter in which Jerome scored 7 straight points. Nembhard scored 12 in the third, and the Grizzlies took only an 82-80 lead into the fourth.

Memphis shot 7-of-27 in the fourth quarter.

The Grizzlies are drawing every opponent’s best shot after their start, in Iisalo’s view, and he thinks that helps them long term.

“Without watching the video, always very easy to draw the wrong conclusions,” Iisalo explained. “I thought both teams played extremely hard, especially the second half. I will say this, we are drawing the best shot from the opponents right now because of our start to the season, that’s great for us in the long term because that allows us to develop and see what are some of the things that have maybe hurt us and then improve those.”

“But overall, I thought both teams had a very low offensive rating today and some very sturdy half-court defense and sometimes even difficulties to get into that half-court offense,” Iisalo continued.

Memphis turned the ball over 19 times, and Indiana scored 24 points off those turnovers. The Grizzlies won the rebounding battle 48-43 and outscored the Pacers 54-46 in the paint.

Isaiah Stewart left in the first half with a right knee injury and did not return. He had 6 points on 3-of-4 shooting in 9:43. Scotty Pippen Jr. was inactive with a lumbar disc herniation.

Indiana played without Tyrese Haliburton (left hamstring strain), T.J. McConnell (right hamstring strain), and Kelly Oubre Jr. (left calf contusion).

The Grizzlies host the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday at 7 p.m. CT. Memphis visits the Toronto Raptors on Monday at 6:30 p.m. CT and returns home to face the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT.