The Grizzlies must be licking their chops. Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports that Cuttino Mobley again will not play due to a sprained ankle. He did not travel to Memphis. This will be the second consecutive game that the Rockets top three offensive options -- Steve Francis, Mobley, and Mo Taylor -- are simultaneously out with injuries.
The Grizzlies moved from Vancouver after last season and have yet to gain much notice -- in or out of Memphis. After seven home dates, they are averaging 13,752, better than only five other NBA teams. The Grizzlies are 2-12, living down to the legacy of the team when it played six seasons in Vancouver and went 101-559.
But these Grizzlies believe they will find the way to the city's heart. The first order of business is to attract the same sort of attention the University of Memphis does for its basketball program.
The teams share the Pyramid, a 10-year-old arena. The Tigers are on the upswing with high-profile coach John Calipari in his second season at the university. They are led by freshman Dajuan Wagner, the nation's top high school player last season.
The Tigers sold more than 17,000 season tickets this season, compared to about 8,000 for the Grizzlies. Within the last 10 days, both teams had games televised on the same night, and the Tigers won clear-cut decisions.
When the Grizzlies moved to Memphis from Vancouver last summer, they conceded this team probably would struggle as it looked to lay the foundation for what they hoped would be a brighter future.
Honesty was definitely the best policy, because just having an NBA team might have been good enough to appease the fans of a lovely, somewhat remote Canadian city, but it never would fly in Memphis.
The city is the home to a traditional college basketball power (University of Memphis) and annually produces some of the country's top basketball talent. People there know the game; they understand nuances, nooks and crannies and can distinguish between good hoops and lousy hoops. And they knew the Grizzlies were lousy.
So it shouldn't have come as a surprise when Memphis residents didn't jump into the Mississippi River for joy just because a historically bad NBA team was coming to town.
In a game that evoked memories of an era of purple pinstriped uniforms and horrid Grizzlies' draft picks, at least one team showed the savvy, if not the skill, of an experienced crew last night.
Clearly not operating anywhere near peak efficiency, the Toronto Raptors nonetheless managed to steal a 91-88 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies before a sold-out crowd at the Air Canada Centre.
But for most of the game, it could have been Toronto-Vancouver circa 1996 with a combined 40 turnovers, a litany of blown opportunities and all the tempo of a sprint through a swamp.
"We didn't make great plays but we made enough plays," said Toronto coach Lenny Wilkens. "So you just have to be thankful for the win."
YOU'D HAVE thought a moment of silence would have been mandatory.
Being the Grizzlies and Raptors, though, and therefore old hands at delivering stupefying moments, that particular hush and an accompanying round of slack jaws was held in escrow all the way until the second quarter.
Hey, same spit, different day. Anyone who's followed the Raptors' Team Sybil act over these long years know this is the way it goes. They refuse to put an opponent away early when they had the chance ? who'd have thought that? Vince Carter and Morris Peterson prefer to put some extra mustard on their hot dogs, and Hakeem Olajuwon looks 38 going on social security ? there'll be nights like this, because we've seen them before. And how about a stretch in the fourth quarter when they combined for four turnovers in eight seconds ? among 17 giveaways in the fourth quarter alone, and 40 for the night?
As for Vancouver, Memphis, wherever, they'll be fine once they figure out that making shots is the name of the game. The way they were going early on, they couldn't have found a basket if you put `em on a ladder underneath it and spotted 'em three rungs. It's like that old saying goes. You can take Big Country out of the country, but you can't take the pooch out of the Griz (at least, not until his contract runs out).
Dan "the Horse" Issel thinks Louisville can be successful as an NBA franchise for a relocated Charlotte Hornets team. Issel comments on the possible move in today's Denver Post from his perspective as a former University of Kentucky and ABA Kentucky Colonels star. Issel doesn't think the Grizzlies would have been a success in Louisville because of the need to put a winner on the floor to attract fans and the competition from university basketball. One wonders why somebody in Michael Heisley's group didn't mention that to him when the Grizzlies moved to Memphis.
"But in Charlotte, you're getting one of the best teams in the league. There is no built in audience or student body or alumni association. You fill seats when you win. Kentucky and (nearby) Indiana are great basketball places. And you put a team as good as Charlotte in Louisville, I don't think there is any question that it succeeds."
Seems this lot is just as grisly whether it says Memphis or Vancouver on the front of the jersey.
Now, that shouldn't really come as any great surprise given the fact the Memphis Grizzlies, in an effort to woo fans in a new market, traded away their two best players and replaced them with an unproven 21-year-old from Spain, a college senior who has a great mind and a still-developing NBA game and a point guard who was cut adrift because he was too out of control for one of the league's most potent offences.
So that Memphis squad that pays its only visit this season to the Air Canada Centre tonight, comes in much like those old Vancouver squads did, with a bad record and little hope for immediate improvement.
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