2011-12 NBA Regular Season
3-10	vs	6-6
January 18th, 2012
New Orleans Arena
7:00 PM CST
TV: CST, NBALP
Probable starters:
Jarrett Jack	=	Mike Conley
Marco Belinelli	<	Tony Allen
Al-TreVuan Samiza	<	Rudy Gay
???	=	Marreese Speights
Emeka Okafor	<	Marc Gasol

Your Pregame Moment of Zen

Long Live Big Country.

On the Grizzlies

We talked a little bit about Memphis a couple days ago, so if you want to check that out, it's here. Obviously not much has changed since then. Zach Randolph is still injured, Darrell Arthur is still out for the season, and the Memphis version of Jason Smith, Josh Davis, continues to do Jason Smith/Josh Davis things.

Since Sunday's meeting, New Orleans has lost twice (including the Memphis game) and the Grizzlies have won twice (including the Hornets game). Above all, this game is most important for...

The Return of Quincy Pondexter!

He's back! And now's as good a time to check out how he's doing as a Grizzly.

Miss you Quincy :(

PER: up to 12.1 from 8.5 from last year (15 is league average)
Offensive Efficiency: up to +9 from -5 last year (differential from league average)
True Shooting: up to 51% from 48% last year
Usage: up to 15.4% from 13.7% last year

And moving away from box-score based statistics, we also have this interesting detail:

Last year, 44% of Quincy's offensive possessions came on spot up opportunities (largely leading to jump shots). That was far and away his most common function on offense, with transition possessions (13%) coming in second for his overall offensive usage. This year, in the early going, that has been flipped, with his spot up possessions accounting for just 30% of his offense, and his transition possessions jumping up to 21.5%. Keeping in mind that transition is the easiest place to score in the NBA, and it's not that much of a surprise that his overall box score numbers are up.

It doesn't hurt at all that he's increased his long-two percentage to 59% from 29% last year, but those increased transition chances have been pretty nice.

Other Notes

- Your opposing team blog for the evening is Straight Outta Vancouver.

- Anybody could start at the three or the four tonight. Literally anyone. You, me, Jamal Mashburn, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Mmm, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.

- Memphis is, weirdly, the best defender of P&R rollers in the NBA this season. So tonight won't be Lob City for Chris Kaman like it normally is.

- I know he's not a star, nor will he ever be one, but I'm legitimately excited for Gustavo Ayon to check into the game.

How come we don't have a PaintShop of him yet?