2 Takeaways From Grizzlies’ 107-103 Loss to Pacers

On Saturday, the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Sacramento Kings 136-105 to go 6-0, matching the best start in franchise history. Four days later, they have lost twice at FedExForum, the second time 107-103 to the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night.

Indiana arrived with five straight losses and two point guards out, Tyrese Haliburton and T.J. McConnell, both with hamstring strains. Andrew Nembhard’s 22 and Pascal Siakam’s 20 led the Pacers, and Aaron Nesmith settled it with a corner 3 off a Siakam pass with 14.6 seconds left.

Indiana finished with 10 steals and turned 19 Memphis turnovers into 24 points.

The first quarter alone had eight of them, and the Pacers led 32-24 after it. Cameron Boozer had 5 for the night. Ty Jerome and Cedric Coward had 3 apiece, Jerome’s including a travel with 0.9 seconds left in the half.

Memphis had 12 turnovers in the first half, which led to 16 Indiana points. After halftime, the Grizzlies cut that to 8 turnovers and 8 points.

Nesmith had 3 of Indiana’s steals. Braden Smith, Quenton Jackson, and Siakam had 2 apiece, and the Pacers outscored Memphis 18-14 in fast-break points. Indiana turned it over 15 times itself, and Memphis scored 22 points off those.

Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo said the overtime loss to New Orleans two nights earlier had already shown what missed fast breaks cost.

“Some of our passes were late and that allowed their pressure defense then to put two on the ball but cut off the passing lanes,” Iisalo said. “Some of them were those. Others were directly off the dribble that we didn’t handle their ball pressure that well. And we certainly didn’t use it against them well enough. You can see that from our offensive rating that there’s always a give and take when you put some pressure on the ball or you put two on the ball, like in the ball screen situations. Ty and Cam, can you then create open looks out of that through quick decisions and on-time, on-target passing and obviously supporting from the other players?”

“But we’ll take a look at the video,” Iisalo continued. “There seem to be all types of turnovers, unfortunately, today. And this was now the second game in a row we had 19 turnovers today. They scored 24 points off of those, 33 points according to our [count] in transition.”

“A lot of them were also, or at least a few, where we had a chance to capitalize on the other end and then it turned into a fast break to the other direction,” Iisalo added. “In that way, not so kind a reminder on the New Orleans game when we were in overtime. We had two fast breaks with two against one and five against three that we couldn’t convert. So we’ve got to be better. That’s part of the learning process for us.”

Indiana was in better position than it had been in recent games, both on the first action and when it had to rotate, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said.

“Well, we’d always like to turn the opponent over as much as we can,” Carlisle said. “Tonight we were just in better position initially on possessions, and when we had to rotate, we were more in the correct positions than we have been in recent games. And over the course of 48 minutes and over 100 possessions on offense and defense, that makes a difference.”

“And there’s, the basketball gods are a little friendlier to you when you’re doing the little dirty things that really make the difference in the margins,” Carlisle continued. “And our guys just, they stayed steadfast to that commitment.”

Two of Boozer’s turnovers were Siakam steals, and another became a Nesmith dunk that tied the game 82-82 early in the fourth. Getting through screens was part of what Indiana did well, in Boozer’s view.

“They got guys who are great at putting ball pressure and getting through screens and stuff like that,” Boozer said. “Again, we’re going to look at it and see what we can do better, but we better move forward.”

Indiana made the same number of 3s, 12, on seven fewer attempts. Quenton Jackson hit 3 of his 5. Memphis shot 5-of-20 from deep before halftime and 7-of-24 after.

Jerome missed 8 of his 10 tries from 3, and Coward made 4 of 12. Jerami Grant and Boozer went 2-of-5 apiece. Jaylen Wells went 0-for-3 from deep and did not score. In the fourth, Memphis was 3-of-15.

Indiana put two on the ball and slid its low man to the roller, Iisalo said, and Memphis did not swing it fast enough to the open man.

“Both,” Iisalo explained. “I would say both. I thought we got some open looks there. Anytime we moved the ball, they were very aggressive in their protection, so they put two on the ball and then they had the low man slide over, take the roll man, which basically leaves one player, call him X, out for the two players on the weak side. I didn’t think we moved the ball quite fast enough to those guys. And then when we did, we did get quality looks, whether from the three or from closeouts.”

“And those are the team reactions we keep talking about and that we will see also because of the very high level individual performances, but those are also the ones that take the longest time to develop,” Iisalo detailed. “[I] said from the beginning of the season that we’re not going to be out-competed and we’re gonna share the ball. The thing that’s gonna take more time is to get the synergy between the players when you have a new team and then a new system overall, so that’s gonna take some time, but basketball is like this. We’ve had some games where the opponents also haven’t made their shots and we have made our shots and today it was the other way around.”

Indiana’s bench outscored Memphis’ 38-36. Memphis still outscored Indiana 54-46 in the paint and won the rebounding battle 48-43. Zach Edey grabbed 13 rebounds, 10 of them defensive. Coward had 9 rebounds, 4 on the offensive glass in the fourth quarter.

Memphis plays again Friday, hosting the Oklahoma City Thunder at 7 p.m. CT.