The Memphis Grizzlies will attempt to bounce back from their first loss when they host the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night.
Memphis was the NBA’s last unbeaten team before falling 135-134 in overtime to the visiting New Orleans Pelicans on Monday.
Trailing by nine points with two minutes left, the Grizzlies relied on starting point guard Ty Jerome to catch the Pelicans. Jerome scored nine straight points to force overtime, but his potential game-winning shot in the closing seconds of OT fell short. Jerome finished with 40 points, his second game this season with 40 or more points.
The Grizzlies were attempting to start a season 7-0 for the first time.
“Unbelievable comeback by our guys there in the fourth,” said Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo.
Iisalo said it was difficult to overcome having 10 fewer shot attempts than the Pelicans. Memphis committed eight more turnovers and grabbed three fewer offensive rebounds.
“I think we’ll respond well,” said Grizzlies wing Jaylen Wells. “We have really good leaders. Shoutouts to Stew (Isaiah Stewart). I think he’s such a positive and motivating guy in the locker room. I think we’ll respond well, just go back in the film, and we know we weren’t gonna go 82-0, obviously, but this is one of those games that you don’t wanna drop.”
The Grizzlies don’t expect to dwell on the difficult loss.
“These games come at you so fast that you just have to move on to the next one,” Stewart said.
Indiana has lost five straight games, but nearly overcame an exceptionally short-handed roster to earn a home win over the Atlanta Hawks on Monday. Due to injuries — including hamstring issues for starters Tyrese Haliburton and T.J. McConnell — and the need to rest players, the Pacers used only six players but had an opportunity to win in the closing minutes.
When the Pacers got a steal and a dunk from Quenton Jackson with 1:23 to go, they trailed by only two points. Jackson missed a go-ahead 3-point attempt with 43 seconds left and the Pels prevailed 108-104.
With only six players available, Jarace Walker logged a team-high 45 minutes while three teammates played at least 40. Even with the short-handed roster, Indiana outscored the Hawks 48-40 in the second half.
Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said the sparse roster was “kind of a perfect storm of things happening at once.”
In addition to the expected absences of Haliburton and McConnell, Kelly Oubre Jr. was a late scratch with a bruised knee. Also missing were Ivica Zubac (ankle), Ben Sheppard (knee), Johnny Furphy (knee), Obi Toppin (lumbar sprain), Andrew Nembhard (cervical) and Aaron Nesmith (hamstring). Larry Nance Jr. was battling an illness and Pascal Siakam was given the night off to rest as Indiana played the second game of a back-to-back.
“It’s unlucky,” Carlisle said. “We had to be smart.”
Carlisle believes people will talk for a long time about the effort the Pacers put forth.
“What those six guys did was very inspirational,” he said. “It just illustrates the power of hard play, and the power of hard, unselfish play and putting a real competitive spirit on a game. I’m very happy our fans got to witness this kind of competition. They got their money’s worth.”
