The last month or so has been a difficult time for the Memphis Grizzlies.
First, Mike Conley was ruled out indefinitely with a sore Achilles injury, which led to a miserable losing streak that eventually reached 11 games. In the middle of that skid, David Fizdale was fired as head coach after benching Marc Gasol. Now, after a 116-107 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, the frustration seems to be reaching new levels.
Gasol called out his teammates for a lack of urgency in the second half, as the Grizzlies dropped their 13th game in their last 14.
Marc Gasol: “When guys don’t play with urgency after losing 12 out of 13 games, that’s mind boggling to me” pic.twitter.com/7jksPS5swj
— Devin Walker (@Devin_Walker5) December 9, 2017
Gasol's full comments:
Not in the second half, because we started thinking about ourselves too much. 'Oh, this guy missed me, or this guy didn't pass me the ball, or this guy didn't help me.' We started making too many excuses. And then we got a little bit lazy, we didn't have no urgency. I don't understand, when you lost, what was it, 12 out of 13 games, how guys can't have urgency. That to me is mind-boggling.
Yikes.
Gasol certainly seems fed up with how things are going in Memphis, and given the team's injuries and general roster make-up, it doesn't seem like it will be getting easier any time soon. The Grizzlies have stated that they won't start rebuilding, and have no plans to trade either Conley or Gasol, but this is definitely a situation to keep monitoring.