As most Grizzlifers know, this team has struggled as of late against the Houston Rockets. They have won 7 straight against us, and all have been double-digit wins.
Now we’ve had some bad losses this year. This has been well documented. But in my years of watching the Grizzlies, I can’t remember being more shaken up by a regular season loss than I was on December 3, 2010. If you need a refresher, please watch this. The Houston Rockets hit 16 of 23 3 pointers against us. At one point, after watching Brad Miller, who ended up going 7-for-7 and scoring 24 points, drive past two grizzly guards and get an and-1, I literally yelled and threw something across the room.
Texts I received from Jumpshot Greisbeck, who was at the game that night:
“GUARD BRAD MILLER”
“This team won’t win 35 games”
“No one plays defense. No one.”
And, my favorite: “Looks like the Barone Era.”
Now, these aren’t the same grizzlies from December 3. We have clearly improved defensively. But defense isn’t the only reason the Rockets have owned us.
There are plenty of reasons the Rockets have owned us. Here are a few:
1) They have heart. With Yao Ming out and the roster thinner than management had expected, the Rockets have still managed to be respectable. Compare this to the Grizzlies as of late, who in the words of Zach Randolph, have “got to get some heart. We’ve got to come out and play with some heart. Period.”
2) They shoot the 3 well. On the year, the rockets are shooting 37 percent from the 3. Against the Grizzlies, they’ve shot an unbelievable 26 of 46, which is good for 57 percent.
3) Kyle Lowry likes to show that he is better than Mike Conley. This is just a theory of mine, but I believe Lowry is still bitter about the Grizzlies making Conley the point guard of the future and then shipping him off for basically nothing. (A late first-rounder, which the Grizzlies always use so well…). Lowry hasn’t lost a game to the Grizzlies since being traded.
4) Confidence. You have to wonder if the team has any confidence that they can win this game tonight? The Associated Press wrote earlier this year, “No matter what the circumstances, every time Houston plays the Memphis Grizzlies, the story ends the same: The Rockets wind up winning. Big.”
5) The Grizzly Killer. 
I believe this is the biggest reason of them all that we haven’t been able to beat the Houston Rockets as of late. They have a Grizzly Killer in Kevin Martin who makes Grizzlifers tremble. Some may go as far as saying that Kevin Martin is THE Grizzly Killer. Recently a colleague of mine, Mr. Watson George, put forward his opinion on Kevin Martin. “He doesn’t just own the Grizzlies, he owns the whole league.” While I agree that Kevin Martin is a really really good basketball player, I believe that there is no team he gets more excited about playing against than our Grizzly Bears. Here are some statistics for you. Since the 2007-2008 season (11 games), Martin has averaged 32.1 points per game against the Grizzlies compared to just under 23 ppg against the rest of the league. On average, Martin takes 5 more shots and gets to the line 4 more times than he does against the rest of the league. Translation? No one on the grizzlies knows how to guard Kevin Martin.
I challenge any follower of the Grizz to find another player in the NBA who feasts on this team more than Kevin Martin. There are some great NBA players out there, but the Grizzly Killer Kevin Martin has shown that he has no regard for the welfare of this team time and time again. Let’s only hope this changes tonight.
Wear the bear and live the grizzlife,
Paul
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