Gametime: Grizzlies vs. Blazers, January 4, 2013

Gametime

Marreese Speights had a double-double of 22 points and 13 rebounds as the Grizzlies fell to the Trail Blazers 86-84 on Friday night. Rudy Gay contributed 19 points and nine rebounds. Marc Gasol added 12 points and Darrell Arthur had 10 points coming off the bench.

"[The game] never really got away until we lost it. It was a hard fought game the whole way. It was a closely contested game. Both team’s shooting percentages went way down in the second half. I think we were shooting 50% and they were shooting 46% in the first half and we wound up 40% and we wind up 36% or 39%. We just could not get a bucket to go in. Three or four attempts at the end, we were down one to take the lead and we just didn’t get them to go. Mike (Conley) had a layup, didn’t go. Mo (Marreese Speights) had a couple of tips, Marc (Gasol) had one, then Rudy (Gay) drove to the basket and had a layup; didn’t go down. I think the thing that hurt us was probably the threes that they were making. We made two out of five and they made 10 out of 27. That was really one of the differences in the game. Everything else was evenly contested. You just have to give them credit, they hung tight, they played, made shots, and made plays down the stretch. We had another chance at the end. They were coming at us real tight. They knew we only had 2.1 seconds to go and they made the stop at the end."

"I mean, if you can’t make buckets you can’t score. We got shots, we got to the basket, we did things that we’ve been trying to do; we just didn’t make anything. That happens sometimes. Struggles are struggles. When you struggle, every game’s different. Some days it’s the first quarter struggles, sometimes it’s the first half, sometimes it’s the third quarter, but tonight it was the fourth quarter. We only scored twelve points and I don’t know what the stats are as far as our shooting percentage in the fourth quarter but it couldn’t be too good if we only scored 12 points. You just move on to another game. We have a tough road trip coming up with three really tough teams. All of them can score, all of them like to play small and spread the court and we’ve got to go deal with them."

"We went to Marc (Gasol), we went to Rudy (Gay) in the post but obviously Z-Bo (Zach Randolph) is the guy that we rely on in the post down the stretch. Anybody that loses one of their best players is going to feel it, and we felt it at a crucial part of the game. We had our opportunities. We’ve got to just keep working, that’s all."

"We played well, we quit making shots. We got up and down the court, we moved the ball, we attacked; we just didn’t make shots and that’s why we only scored 84 points. There are not a lot of games you’re going to win. We held them to 86 (points) and when you hold someone to 86, most nights you’re going to win, but we didn’t because we shot 39% from the field."

"We didn’t play like we wanted to. We let them set their defense and shoot their shots. I think it was more on us, than on them. We missed shots in the paint. We missed a few down there and then we were fine for rebounds. We had the looks. The ball would bounce around the rim. We could have found better shots; that’s part of it. We matched really well and set screens and moved the ball as well as we should have."

"Sometimes we set up shots; sometimes we don’t move the ball. We have to keep moving through this stuff. There is good and bad and we have to keep our heads up. We played well; we just couldn’t make a shot the last 10 shots of the game. I wish we had better shots, but we didn’t."

"We had a hard time. We came out slow and didn’t have a lot of energy. We tried to do the best that we could do."

"I just tried to go out there play hard and attack the goal when my teammates threw me the ball. I tried to get to the free-throw line."

"We were rushing it. The ball couldn’t go anywhere. It’s the NBA, so things like that happen. We’ll be all right. It’s frustrating, but like I said it’s the NBA and things like that happen all of the time, so we just have to bounce back to the next game in Phoenix."

"We just have to go out there and play Grizz ball. We know we lost to them out there already, so we have to bounce back. We have to start our road trip off with a win."