The need for nastier Grizzlies paint defense against Trail Blazers

It doesn’t happen often, yet maybe in the case of the Memphis Grizzlies, the sequel against the Portland Trail Blazers goes much smoother than the original. Yet that’s only going to happen if they don’t get crushed on the boards or experience the turd quarter.

It’s another entry in the team’s skeleton crew chronicles on the road, so the team will have to disrupt the ball without fouling and stay aware of the off-ball threats.

Notably, the Grizzlies’ road winning percentage is 0.9 points lower (39.1) than their home winning percentage (40.0). Here is what you need to know.

Stingier defense and the players to watch out for

The Grizzlies are playing small and fast because they are low on bodies, but the difficult part is maintaining a strong defense. They cannot have a repeat of their poor transition coverage on Saturday. Their problems were everywhere on Friday as Memphis let the hosts be much better than their below-average deep shooting. The fourth-quarter defense was abysmal, preventing any comeback, so they must be more alert when coming out of intermission. They also couldn’t disrupt action in the lane when Deni Avdija didn’t play.

One of the players they’ll have to key in on is Jrue Holiday. At age 35, he’s aged like fine wine and is still a threat to get into the paint to set up teammates. Expect him and Scoot Henderson to be Portland's main playmakers. The Grizzlies will need Cedric Coward and Scotty Pippen Jr. to stay on the hip of those ball handlers.

Sharper half-court offense

The Grizzlies only logged 93.8 points per 100 half-court possessions on Friday, which is good enough for the 38th percentile. They must do better at reading and reacting because the Blazers have suspect coverages and usually don’t recover on time. Additionally, they can’t waste open 3-point opportunities like on Friday, and will need Jaylen Wells and Coward to make more than three in 12 combined attempts.

Rebounding and turnovers

Despite the Trail Blazers not doing much damage in second-chance scoring on Friday, the Grizzlies must box out and gang rebound better so they don’t give up critical possessions. The biggest threat in that department is Donovan Clingan. Memphis will need to be as physical as they can with him within the rules. Additionally, they can’t be as careless with the ball because they were punished with 19 points off those mistakes.