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Memphis in complete control over Blazers

By Erik Gundersen, Columbian Trail Blazers Writer
Published: January 28, 2014, 4:00pm

In football, they say that defense travels.

The Memphis Grizzlies showed Tuesday that the same applies in the NBA.

After getting 2013 Defensive Player of the Year Marc Gasol back in the lineup on Jan. 14, the Grizzlies have been playing some of the best defense in the NBA.

That defense was again on display as Memphis beat the Portland Trail Blazers 98-81 at the Moda Center.

Zach Randolph finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds, while Mike Conley finished with 19 points and seven assists to lead the Grizzlies.

The Blazers were out of sorts from the opening tip in their eighth game in 12 days. Following the loss, forward Nioclas Batum wasn’t dwelling on the game so much as looking forward to some rest, mental as much as physical.

“Those three days are going to be good for us to rest. Get our mind fresh,” he said. “We came in the game, we had no energy.”

The first possession of the game featured Robin Lopez holding the ball at the elbow, and the second possession resulted in a turnover from Damian Lillard.

The only Blazer who could assert himself in the early -going was LaMarcus Aldridge.

He finished with 27 points and 16 rebounds — but none of Portland’s other scorers could find a rhythm until they were in desperation mode.

“I think we can move the ball better,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “We’ve gotten away from the ball movement that’s important for us. We need each other to help each other, particularly on the offensive end.”

The Blazers stepped up defensively in the second half, only allowing Memphis to score 37 points after allowing 61 in the first half.

But defense does not put the ball in the basket, and Batum thinks that the team might be thinking too much.

“That was a bad game,” Batum said. “We didn’t make our shots because we’re thinking too much. We thinking too much, and when you think too much you start to get away from where we were.”

The Grizzlies made everything hard, and even when the Blazers had decent looks, they could not knock down the shot.

The Blazers continued their recent shooting struggles from long range with Tuesday serving as the low point. They shot 4 of 24 from the three-point line.

Damian Lillard made Portland’s first three-pointer with 11:26 to go in the fourth quarter.

The Blazers opened up the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run. But just as it looked like the could get back into the game, a Gasol three-point play with with nine minutes left in the fourth wrestled away the momentum.

The Grizzlies calmly made six of their 13 attempts from 3-point range.

Portland’s benchwas outplayed by the Memphis reserves, who outscored the Blazers 25-7.

The Blazers’ 3-point shooting performance was their second-worst of the season. Over the last nine games, including Tuesday’s loss, the Blazers are shooting 31 percent on three-point shots.

However, Stotts is not worried about it lingering for too long.

“I’m concerned in that I’d like to be making shots, but we have too many good shooters for it to continue,” he said.

Basketball, as Lopez told reporters Tuesday, is not only a game of runs within the game itself, but those runs manifest over the course of a season as well.

And now, these Blazers are finally being tested by adversity.

“We didn’t want our first stretch of adversity to come during the playoffs,” he said.

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Columbian Trail Blazers Writer