Let's talk about the loss of the game first. How pitiful is it that the Grizzlies couldn't beat a team whose biggest name was Michael Beasley (D-Wade sat out with an injury)? After rallying from a 15-point halftime deficit in the second half, the Grizz squandered the game in the second overtime, getting outscored 15-2. "We had no more left in our tank," Coach Lionel Hollins said. Of course we didn't, Lionel. Four of our five starters played 50+ minutes. Only two Heat players played more than 40. We had a combined 43 bench minutes (out of 290 total minutes; 15%) while the Heat had 106 (37%). It's common sense that we would be the team to run out of gas. This problem has plagued the Grizzlies all season long. We often run out steam at the end of games and we don't have a good enough bench to spread the minutes around and keep everyone fresh. That is precisely why we traded for Ronnie Brewer: to give our bench more quality and depth.
And what happened to Brewer last night? He got hurt. After playing 12 minutes through the first three quarters, he went down with 9:27 left in the 4th (on his way to a fast break dunk, no less). Going down with him was any chance of an increased bench production for the Grizzlies over the next month. Combined, Sam Young, Jamaal Tinsley, Marcus Williams, et al. just don't have enough talent to spell the starters. Brewer does. However, Grizzlies fans will have to wait a while to see him bring a spark to the bench. For now, the starting five will have to summon huge amounts of energy in order to keep the team in playoff contention. If not, things could get really bad really fast for the Grizzlies. We've already lost 8 of 10 and are dropping further and further off the playoff radar (now 3.5 games out of 8th place).
Here's hoping that these last few weeks have just been a fluke. I know we can win games with a limited bench; we did it throughout December and January. The question is, can we again?
Go Grizz!
Owen
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