Game 39: Spurs fall to Grizzlies after defensive struggles in second half

(1) What happened to the defense in second half? (2) Castle's career high scoring night (3) Vassell's 21 points (4) Wemby's first half block party

Photo credit: Reginald Thomas II, Spurs.com

Entering the Game

The Memphis Grizzlies entered the game favored by 2.5 points. The San Antonio Spurs were once again without Jeremy Sochan, while the Grizz were without Marcus Smart, GG Jackson, and Vince Williams Jr.

This is the Story of a Game

The game was close for most of the first half, but then the Spurs ended the second quarter strongly, going into halftime with a 12-point lead. In that second quarter, the Spurs held the Grizzlies to 23 points, making it their best defensive quarter in the game.

In the second half though, the Spurs’ defense would fall apart. The Grizz scored 43 points in the third quarter and then they followed that up with a 35-point fourth quarter. The game went to crunch time for about a minute, but then once the Grizzlies went up by 7 points, they never looked back, building as large as a 16-point lead in those final five minutes. The final result was a 14-point win for Memphis.

“The second half felt like we got into their style of play a little bit and they got going, and got into a rhythm, and then we were playing catch up there,” said Spurs Acting Head Coach Mitch Johnson after the game. “It’s tough, when a team plays that fast and they start making some shots. I think they made six threes in the third or something like that, and they were getting fouls, and got into the bonus pretty early. So it was a tough combination defensively.”

“The key was trying to keep them out of transition, I think they got a lot of transition buckets,” said Devin Vassell after the game. “I think we’ve got to guard better 1-on-1, including myself, big time. That’s what I felt. That’s what I’ve seeing.”

After the loss

The loss drops the Spurs back below .500 at 19-20 overall. They’re now 12-9 at home, 16-15 against Western Conference teams, and they open the season series at 0-1 against Memphis.

In crunch time, the Spurs are now 9-9 (13th). The Spurs have fallen behind by 15 points in 46% of their games this season. When that happens, they’re now 4-14.

Up Next

If the Spurs want revenge, they only have to wait 48 hours, with a rematch in San Antonio scheduled between the two teams for Friday evening.

Shot Location Scoring, Spurs Box Score, and the Math Game

Here are the four items in this postgame edition:

• (1) What happened to the defense in the second half?

• (2) Stephon Castle’s career high scoring night

• (3) 21 points for Devin Vassell

• (4) Wemby’s first half block party

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(1) What happened to the defense in the second half?

The Grizzlies scored 78 points in the the second half. They shot 60% from the floor, 50% from three, and 7-of-11 from the foul line. They were able to get a good balance of being able to score inside (34 paint points) and outside (33 points from three). Four Grizzlies players scored in double digits in the second half, with Desmond Bane scoring 16 of his 21 points, Jaren Jackson Jr. scoring 14 of his 19 points, Ja Morant scoring 11 of his 21 points, and Santi Aldama scoring 11 of his 20 points.