The Memphis Grizzlies, at home, beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 96-92. Marc Gasol played well with 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting to go along with 9 rebounds. The Grizzlies played well defensively only allowing Cavs to 92 points. The Grizzlies were one of the best defensive teams last season. The Cavs did not play LeBron James this game to rest him. Kyrie Irving had another very good game tonight with 16 points on 7 of 11 shooting and also 3 assists. Irving has had a very good pre season. Dion Waiters played very well with 15 points on 6 of 10 shooting, and 3 three pointers. Rookie Joe Harris played pretty well with 10 points and 4 rebounds off the bench.
Overall, the Cavs did not play a good game offensively only shooting 41.5% from the field and 71% from the costless throw line. The bench did not play well and did not get much production from Kevin Love, Anderson Varejao, and Shawn Marion as their starters. Kevin Love had 12 points and 8 rebounds in 24 minutes, which is not that much scoring from him considering that LeBron James was out this game. After watching the last couple preseason games, it looks like Love may not score as much as some people think. Irving and Waiters may take more shots than they should be. It is still only pre season and the Cavs have plenty of time to figure that out.
Kosta Kofous played a good game for the Grizzlies with 13 points on 5 of 6 from the field while coming off the bench. Jon Leuer played well with 10 points on 3 of 6 shooting off the bench. The Grizzlies are in the tough Western Conference, which will not make it easy for them to reach the playoffs. They added one key piece to their bench, which was Vince Carter, but that was it. They will likely get a 7 or 8 seed in the West at best.
This was the Cavaliers last preseason game and their first regular season game against the Knicks is a week from Thursday. That is going to be the most exciting game for the Cavs fans in a while, as they will be seeing LeBron in a Cavaliers uniform for the first time in a regular season or playoff game in four years. In addition, the Cavs have never really had as talented of a team as this one, perhaps in franchise history. The Cavs are a championship contender this year and this author thinks it will be a battle between them and Bulls in the East. In addition, they need to get it together defensively and also figure out how they will play their offense with Love, Irving, Waiters, and James taking the shots.