Memphis, which made the playoffs for the first time in franchise history last season and is expected to contend again this season, began its 2004-05 schedule slowly with consecutive losses to Washington, Houston, Dallas and Houston again.
The Grizzlies finally got turned around by beating the L.A. Lakers and then trouncing Golden State by 29-points on Friday night.
Perhaps the team’s biggest problem to date has been shooting. Forwards Pau Gasol and Shane Battier have been sharp, with Gasol shooting .548 and Battier .516 through the first six games, but after that the percentages drop way off.
Four members of the regular rotation are shooting under .400 – guards Earl Watson (.395) and Bonzi Wells (.375), forward Stromile Swift (.352) and center Lorenzen Wright (.282). As a team, Memphis is shooting just .416 from the field and ranked 25th among 30 NBA teams heading in Saturday night’s games.
Not surprisingly, the Grizzlies are also not scoring well. Memphis is averaging just 92.2 points a game, ranking 23rd.
Gasol leads the team in scoring at 17.8 points a game and is the second-leading rebounder at 7.2. Backup forward Stromile Swift is second in scoring at 12.7, and is the leading rebounder at 8.5 and shot blocker at 2.5.
The success the Grizzlies had last season, said Seattle coach Nate McMillan, has changed the way teams prepare for them.
“It’s not like they’re still an expansion team,” he said. “That’s a playoff team now and teams are approaching them differently.”
Keeping an even keel: The Sonics went through a brief practice on Saturday that was little more than a walk-through, followed by a half-hour of film study. Most of the players seemed upbeat, but in a subdued sort of way.
That, McMillan said, is by design.
“As I tell the group, we don’t want to get too high and we don’t want to get too low,” he explained. “We have to continue doing what we’re doing and we have to continue to get better because other teams are going to get better as we get into the season.”
That’s a fact: Heading into Saturday’s games, the Sonics were tied for third in the NBA in points differential. Seattle is averaging 101.2 points per game and the opponents have averaged 91.0, a differential of 10.2.
The league leader was surprising Phoenix at 17.4, while Utah was second at 14.8. Dallas was tied with Seattle for third.
Rich Myhre, Herald Writer
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