MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Nets had hoped to use last night’s game against the Grizzlies, one of the top teams in the Western Conference, as another measuring stick to see how much they had grown over the past month.
Instead, the Grizzlies took that measuring stick and smacked the Nets over the head with it on their way to a 101-77 victory in front of 16,911 inside FedEx Forum.
“They did what they wanted to do,” Gerald Wallace said. “They came out and hit us dead in the mouth. They took it from the opening tip to the final buzzer.
They controlled the boards, they were more physical and tougher than us. … This was a reality check for us.”
For the Nets (26-17), who saw their three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 12-3 under interim coach P.J. Carlesimo, there were few positives. Memphis shot 60 percent in the first half — 52 percent for the game, grabbed 15 offensive rebounds, scored 62 points in the paint and came up with 27 second-chance points as they seemingly did what they wanted to from beginning to end.
“They just came out and played better than us,” said Deron Williams, who finished with 12 points, five rebounds and six assists. “This is a game where we didn’t come out and play the way we were supposed to play.”
Williams also had the Nets holding their collective breath when he fell to the floor holding his left knee after banging into Grizzlies forward Darrell Arthur late in the third quarter. He eventually got to his feet and limped off with what the Nets called a left quadriceps contusion.
Though Williams never returned, Carlesimo said that he could have if the game was closer.
But that wasn’t the case after the Grizzlies (28-14) essentially ended the game by halftime, thanks in large part to a terrific performance from Grizzlies center Marc Gasol. Though Brook Lopez played like he had a point to prove after being left off the Eastern Conference All-Star team, scoring 18 points and blocking three shots, Gasol, who had just as good of an argument to make the Western Conference’s squad, was even better.
He scored all 20 of his points in the first half, going 10-for-15 from the field to go along with seven rebounds and a blocked shot, spearheading a Grizzlies offensive attack that helped them race out to a 67-44 halftime lead.
“We’re very disappointed,” Carlesimo said. “We think we’re a better team than we showed in the first half.
“We didn’t match their physicality or aggressiveness on defense, especially their aggressiveness on the boards in the first half. That was the game.”
It was that battle of the boards, which saw the Nets get outrebounded 24-13 in the first half, including allowing Memphis to rack up 11 offensive rebounds, that decided the game. It seemed every time the Grizzlies missed a shot, they found a way to come up with the loose ball, sometimes in spectacular fashion.
That was the case when a 21-7 run by the Grizzlies in the second quarter that effectively ended the game was capped off by a tip-dunk off an offensive rebound by Grizzlies guard Chris Johnson.
“It ain’t that, them being bigger or whatever,” said Reggie Evans, who had 11 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. “It ain’t that.
“You can’t look over there and say, ‘Oh, Marc and Zach [Randolph] go to the boards.’ You can’t sit here and say it’s just them two going to the boards. Everybody goes to the boards. Everybody goes to the boards so that means that everybody has to box out.”
Instead, the Nets found themselves battered and bruised as they headed to Houston for tonight’s game, the final leg of the team’s four-game road trip.
“We got beat up,” Carlesimo said. “They just took it to us. They’re one of the best teams in the league, and they should us why they’re one of the best teams in the league.”