A week-and-a-half ago at FedExForum, the Grizzlies lost 119-97 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a game remembered for inactive veteran guard Marcus Smart lecturing his teammates on the bench and Wolves’ star Anthony Edwards noting the surprising lack of energy in the building. 

It was, as Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins noted ahead of Friday’s rematch, “the most disappointing game of the season for us.”

With the currently league-best Timberwolves (at 16-4) back in town this week, in a game scheduled only after both teams missed the quarterfinals of the league’s new in-season tournament, it was perhaps an opportunity for revenge. But even more so it was a good opportunity to evaluate how much the Grizzlies had actually transformed themselves in going 3-1 since that prior game. 

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Verdict, unsurprisingly: Work to do.

The Grizzlies (now 6-15), lost 127-103, even though Edwards left the game after four minutes with a hip injury and didn’t return. 

There were no sideline lectures this time. Only another loss to a very good team, and another one with three of the Grizzlies’ top four guards watching from the inactive list.

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Minnesota might have lost its top scorer, but its defense remained imposing. 

Minnesota has been the NBA’s best defensive team this season, by a significant margin, and center Rudy Gobert has re-established himself as a force around the rim. 

“He had nine offensive rebounds. They had 23 second-chance points. It was a challenge all night,” said Jenkins after the game. “We have to be better. They’ve come in and punked us two games in a row now.” 

The Wolves held the Grizzlies to 103 points on 43% shooting from the floor, with Gobert notching 20 rebounds and six blocks. 

The Wolves dominated the smaller Grizzlies on the glass 54-28, at times even deploying a three-center lineup of Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns and reserve Naz Reid.

Gobert’s 20 boards was four times as many as the Grizzlies’ starting frontcourt of center Bismack Biyombo and power forward Jaren Jackson Jr., who combined for only five. 

Rebounding, of course, is a team activity, and for the Grizzlies, perhaps more than the Gobert-led Wolves, it has to be. 

It wasn’t in this one. 

“They have a lot of size, we just have to be better, box out, clear those guys out of the paint and let the guards clean it up,” said small forward David Roddy. “We didn’t do that today. We’re going to look back on the film and work on it.”

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Offensively, Minnesota might have been without Edwards, but it exploited the Grizzlies the way many other teams have this season: With good 3-point shooting from its secondary players and a free-throw advantage.

Minnesota role-players Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Troy Brown Jr. and Shake Milton each connected on three or more 3s. Meanwhile, Minnesota nearly doubled up the Grizzlies at the foul line, 24-14. 

Two nights after scoring a career-high 49 points at Detroit, Desmond Bane couldn’t generate the offense to overcome Gobert’s paint presence. 

Bane had only five points with 90 seconds left in the first half, and while he came alive for a while after that, he still finished with only 16.

Jackson led the Grizzlies with 21 points on 7-14 shooting. 

The Wolves brought the NBA’s best record and No. 1 defense into FedExForum. 

The Grizzlies were again without Morant ... and Luke Kennard and Smart.

But beyond those facts, what could have gone better that was controllable for the Grizzlies?

Jenkins used the word “will.”

“We talked about the urgency we have to have,”
 said Jenkins. “They played with force. When we guarded well we couldn’t get a rebound. They got almost 50 points in non-earned (ways). They got second-chance points because we didn’t do our work and we fouled them too much.” 

What’s more real, the two bad recent losses to Minnesota or the stretch of better play in-between?

“We should appreciate that we were trending up before, but we can’t let this (game) get away from us,” said Jackson. “Definitely look at the film and come together. There were things that were glaring tonight that they exploit, and we aren’t usually this bad at it, but we’re about to play better teams.” 

If this game was a measuring stick, the Grizzlies didn’t quite measure up. But help is on the way, and now one game closer.

Ghosts of Grizzlies past

With Morant and Smart out, Derrick Rose, on his second “Memphis” team, got the start, and opposite Mike Conley, who had been a rookie with the Grizzlies during Rose’s one season at the University of Memphis. 

If this was a Bluff City backcourt reunion, there was perhaps a bit too much Southern hospitality given to the guest. Rose scored six points on 2-7 shooting, with seven assists. 

Conley matched the seven assists, but with 19 points on 6-11 shooting. 

For the second time in four years, Conley is the starting point guard on a team leading the West. Three years ago it was with the Utah Jazz team the Grizzlies faced in their first playoff series since Conley’s “grit and grind” era.

But Conley wasn’t the only former Grizzly in the game. 

Kyle Anderson also returned with Minnesota, and didn’t get quite as much hospitality.

Anderson’s always hitchy jumper was more wayward than usual, and the Grizzlies invited him to shoot. On three close-proximity possessions in the first half, the Grizzlies ignored Anderson completely, leaving him something more than merely wide open in the corner. The result was three straight missed shots, the last an airball.

But the man they call “Slow Mo” got the last laugh. Literally.

When he finally made a shot, near the end of the game, he turned to the Wolves bench, threw his hands up and laughed. His team was winning big and he’d contributed with six rebounds and five assists. 

Roddy’s rise

When Jenkins pulled the plug with four-and-a-half minutes left in the game, rotation reserves reserves John Konchar and Jaylen Nowell shared mop-up duty with the three active Grizzlies who hadn’t yet played: Two-way guard Jacob Gilyard, second-year forward Kenneth Lofton Jr. and third-year wing Ziaire Williams. 

It’s been a rough trajectory through the first quarter of the season for former lottery pick Williams, who opened the season in the starting lineup and has played his way down, first to the bench and for now out of the rotation. 

As the Grizzlies’ cohort of young wings has bobbed in and out of the rotation all season, there’s only been one constant: David Roddy, who’s recently stepped into the starting small forward role. 

The 6-foot-4 Roddy was often asked to guard seven-foot Wolves star Towns, and provided 13 points, the most scored by any Grizzly other than Jackson or Bane. Roddy shot 5-7 on two-pointers against the imposing Wolves, mostly on aggressive drives to the rim. 

Why has Roddy been able to buck the season’s up-and-down trend on the wing and stay in the rotation every night?

“He’s had different roles, played the four, the back-up 3. We’ve injected him into the starting lineup and I think he’s done a pretty good job in recent games,” said Jenkins. “He had a good start tonight. I love his competitiveness. He’s got to settle in sometimes, slow it down on offense and lock in on defense, but he’s taken on the challenge.” 

Up next

The Grizzlies remain home to host the division-rival Dallas Mavericks on Monday at 7 p.m. (Bally Sports Southeast).