Grizzlies at Nets
The Memphis Grizzlies endured a recent slump in which they struggled to make stops on the defensive end, but the team has turned that around in a dramatic way. The Grizzlies will try to push their winning streak to three games while maintaining an impressive stretch on defense Wednesday night when they visit a Brooklyn Nets squad that is coming off a phenomenal comeback win in Boston.
After giving up an average of 122.8 points during a five-game slide, Memphis has allowed exactly 88 points in each of its last two games, first topping the Western Conference-leading Los Angeles Lakers by 17 points and then walloping the Atlanta Hawks by 39 in the opener of a three-game road trip Monday night. "Contributions from everyone, but it started with the defensive end," coach Taylor Jenkins told reporters after his team held the Hawks to 32.3 percent shooting. "As I hit them after the game, I said this is something that you have to build off of. We can't wait again." The Grizzlies, who hold a 3 1/2-game lead in the race for the No. 8 seed in the West, will try to build off of that effort against a Nets' unit that scored a franchise-record 51 points in the fourth quarter and dominated the extra session to steal a 129-120 overtime win against the Celtics. Caris LeVert scored 37 of his career-high 51 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to lead the historic rally as Brooklyn snapped a four-game slide and moved a half-game up on Orlando for seventh in the East.
TIME: 7:30 p.m. ET. TV: FS Southeast, YES
ABOUT THE GRIZZLIES (30-31): Memphis missed its first 11 shots at Atlanta before finishing at 50 percent from the field while seeing nine players finish with between 10-17 points. "We've got to come out from the jump, even if we aren't making shots," Jenkins added. "They got out of the slump there. And then we just kind of found a groove." Big men Jonas Valanciunas and Gorgui Dieng led the way in the team's most lopsided victory of the season as both recorded double-doubles and combined for 32 points and 25 boards.
ABOUT THE NETS (27-33): LeVert finished 17-of-26 from the floor - including 5-of-10 from 3-point range - and had a team-high five assists in his career night in Boston, which included all 11 of his team's points in OT to cap a comeback that began when the team was down 21 in the third. "The second quarter, I think I only had like two buckets that quarter and the third quarter I didn't score," LeVert told reporters. "I knew that if I got the chance to go back in there we had a shot at winning the game." It was the ninth 50-point game in franchise history and gave the 25-year-old guard a scoring average of 24.9 over his last 12 games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Valanciunas is averaging 16.5 points and 17.3 rebounds during a string of four straight double-doubles.
2. Nets C DeAndre Jordan had 15 rebounds Tuesday, his third game with at least that many since the All-Star break.
3. Jenkins picked up his first win as a head coach with a 134-133 overtime thriller against Brooklyn on Oct. 27.