Memphis Grizzlies' Resilience Was Not Enough To Overcome The Chicago Bulls On The Road

Trailing by as many as 22 points in the first half, The Memphis Grizzlies showed admirable resilience on the road against the Chicago Bulls Wednesday night. The Grizzlies were able to cut the lead to 88-87 with around four minutes left in the fourth quarter until Zach Lavine and Kris Dunn combined for an 8-0 run down the stretch leading to the eventual final score of 106-99

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Trailing by as many as 22 points in the first half, The Memphis Grizzlies showed admirable resilience on the road against the Chicago Bulls Wednesday night. The Grizzlies were able to cut the lead to 88-87 with around four minutes left in the fourth quarter until Zach Lavine and Kris Dunn combined for an 8-0 run down the stretch leading to the eventual final score of 106-99

Jonas Valanciunas led the Grizzlies with 32 points and 13 rebounds, completing his thirteenth double-double of the season.  Jaren Jackson Jr. had 15 points and 7 rebounds, connecting on 2 out of 5 attempts from three-point range.  Jackson was struggling with foul trouble once again which resulted in him only playing 26 minutes.  Jackson also had difficulties finishing in the post leading him to be self-reflective about his performance on Twitter later that night.

i gotta be better🔜

— JJJ (@jarenjacksonjr) December 5, 2019

Grizzlies Head Coach Taylor Jenkins was positive about his team's overall performance - especially their ability to battle back from such a large deficit.

“Yeah, I thought our guys competed for the majority of the game," said Jenkins.  "When you go 0 for 15 on the 3-point line, you're missing layups and threes, it puts a lot of pressure on you. I felt like our defense was in a pretty solid place for the most part, but it does make it really hard not making shots.

"Guys came out with making some threes, but I thought our defensive activity even just went to another level," Jenkins would add.  "We get the game within one, they hit some tough shots late in the game, and we fouled a little bit too much for them on the free-throw line. So things that we need to clean up. But for the most part, we got to have this kind of momentum we build in the second half, which I know it's not easy to say and we obviously lost the game. But we got three more road games coming up, got another one Saturday and we just got to continue to build on that and continue to have that fight for 48 minutes.”

Another interesting tidbit from the game was that Grizzlies combo-guard DeAnthony Melton replaced Tyus Jones, who started the game, in the games lineup after halftime.  It will interesting to see if they move will lead to Melton possibly being inserted as the starter in rookie Ja Morant's absence and the backup point guard upon his return.  The first time to see if this change will be put into effect will be Saturday as the Grizzlies will travel to take on the Utah Jazz.