Memphis Grizzlies have overwhelming Ja Morant in the opener against the Utah Jazz. Midway through the third quarter, they took a seven-point lead over the host Houston Rockets for the second straight game. Then everything seemingly fell apart in an incident that ended in a 128-108 blowout less than 24 hours before the home opener. Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins went to his jugular vein While explaining what happened in the last 20 minutes of the game.

“They basically attacked us,” Jenkins said. “We have to answer.”

The public rebuke doesn’t get much harsher in professional sports. Some terms and expressions are reserved for sending messages. But Jenkins also had some constructive criticism. The locker room was certainly listening to the numerous areas for improvement that Jenkins gave the media to note during his post-match press conference. The Grizzlies couldn’t shake the Rockets early.

“I couldn’t get a rebound,” Jenkins said. “We couldn’t go out and play fast.”

Grizzlies driven out of town by Rockets

The statistics seem consistent with competitive play, but that was far from the case. Morant went 8-0f-17 from the field for 24 points. Desmond Bane (17), Scottie Pippen Jr. (13) and Zach Edey also reached double digits. The Grizzlies got the expected half-court points but had trouble returning due to many mistakes made by the Rockets.

Houston scored 29 points after 19 turnovers. While Memphis only scored 13 points, it also committed 19 turnovers. It doesn’t take a major study of film to dig deeper into what went wrong in the third quarter. It was more of the same, but now the Rockets were shooting after winning extra possessions. Houston’s hot hands led to a 17-0 run and the Grizzlies never got anywhere near the lead again.

“We couldn’t stop,” Jenkins replied. “They shot under 40%, and then we couldn’t rebound. Then they put pressure on us (full court) and we couldn’t run our attack. I mean, we had some good shots, but probably a few too many floaters. We missed some open threes and then turnovers. Their physicality has changed, but our lack of rebounding has impacted our ability to go out and run.”

Morant, who played only 24 minutes in the defeat, confessed in the second half The substitution was his decision.. Jenkins attributed that rise to the All-Star not doing much in preseason camp. Still, flaws emerged. rookie Grizzlies rookie Zach Edey didn’t look special like never. Either way, the Grizzlies have little time to get right before their highly anticipated home opener at the FedEx Forum.

“Our fans have been waiting a long time to see the Grizzlies in action,” Jenkins said. “It’s going to be electric. There’s no better place to play basketball than the FedEx Forum with the arena rocking. I hope we respond as I said. I expect nothing less than a rocking crowd tomorrow night.”