Keys to Memphis Grizzlies’ win: Taylor Jenkins’ personnel decisions
There were two instances that come to mind with Taylor Jenkins rolling the dice with his substitutes, both payed off greatly. First, midway through the second quarter, Xavier Tillman gave the grizzlies some great minutes as Jonas Valanciunas and Jaren Jackson Jr. were in early foul trouble.
Including a moment in the second quarter were the former Michigan State Spartan dove head first for a loose ball and came up with it. Somewhere, Coach Tom Izzo is recording that play, saving it to his hard drive, and showing it to his players on a loop for an hour straight, with tears of joy in his eyes.
In the 4th quarter, Valanciunas fouled out, the next logical choice to sub would be Jaren Jackson Jr. The problem is, Jackson hadn’t given them great minutes in this game. A few missed post shots, a couple of badly missed threes, and not to mention a mental lapse in which he fouled Steph Curry on a three, which of course he made ending in a 4-point play. Also, lets not forget Jackson Jr. has not played all season long as he was nursing injuries almost the entire season.
Jenkins rolls the dice and puts in Tillman instead of Jackson Jr in crunch time, and it just so happens that Tillman makes a very timely three and played very good defense on Draymond Green. I respect Jenkins’ decision, it worked out this time but I love that he went with his gut and with a player who’s been there all season long. Jackson Jr is arguably the Grizzlies second best player behind Morant, that takes a lot of guts to go with your 8th to 9th man over your second option in a road playoff game.
The second instance of gutsy personnel decisions from coach Taylor Jenkins was the decision to start Grayson Allen in overtime. Grayson started the game but didn’t have a huge impact prior to overtime. Allen played about 20 minutes and scored 6 points in regulation, pretty pedestrian. Overtime starts and Allen walks out with the starting group after not playing a ton of minutes.
Then somehow the ball finds him on offense and he starts overtime off with two 3-point field goals. In overtime, every position means everything, and to have two threes seemingly fall in their lap, that was a huge moment in the game. All credit to Allen for making the shots but he wouldn’t have been out there unless Jenkins made that decision. That’s a classic example of knowing and trusting your players, excellent job from coach Jenkins.