If you're a team desperate for a home victory after losing a bunch of games in a row, then the Clippers coming to town appears to be a gift from the schedule-making gods. L.A. is a team that came into this game with just three wins in 18 tries, and considering the fact that with Chris Kaman out it's basically up to the starting five to get the job done, any team with a remotely productive bench should be able to secure a victory. The Grizzlies were supremely qualified to do exactly that, and did the job by beating the Clippers 93-81 in Memphis.
The Clippers got strong performances from three of their starters, but the other two were below average, and their bench was non-existent. Baron Davis lead the team with 23 points and eight assists on 7-of-16 shooting, while Zach Randolph and Marcus Camby contributed 21 points and five rebounds and 15 and 10 respectively. But off nights from Al Thornton and Eric Gordon, along with a discrepancy in bench scoring of 33 to six in favor of Memphis, made this one a cake walk for the Grizzlies.
Former USC standout O.J. Mayo continued his strong rookie year with a 20 point performance, and the highly underrated Rudy Gay led the Grizzlies with 25. The Clippers were unable to slow Memphis' hot shooting, allowing them to connect on almost 50% of their field goal attempts, including letting them hit almost 54% of their shots from three-point land. After taking a one point lead into the second quarter, L.A. managed just 56 points the rest of the way, which isn't going to be good enough (like, ever) to come away with a win in the NBA.
What else can be said about this Clippers team that isn't painfully evident to anyone that's seen them play this season? L.A. has zero production from their bench, which means for them to have any shot at winning, the starters are going to have to play around 40 minutes each and have all five players produce at their averages or above in every statistical category for the team to be able to come out on top. Against Memphis, they only got production from three of the starting five, and as a result, they lost to a 4-14 team way too easily.
