MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It wasn’t so much a third quarter as it was a bludgeoning, the kind of statement of intent that the Memphis Grizzlies — brash and unapologetic for it all season — have shouted for anyone to hear on their way to the NBA’s third-best record.
Trailing by just 12 points two minutes into third quarter in FedEx Forum on Tuesday, the Clippers were gamely hanging around despite numerous ways they’d tried to allow a Grizzlies blowout in the first half. Just eight minutes later they trailed by 30, Memphis making its move like its All-Star guard Ja Morant — fast and ruthless.
The Clippers had already lost three times to Memphis this season through a similar blueprint, with the Grizzlies perpetually tougher and playing with more physicality. But the season sweep-ensuring defeat was this matchup at its most lopsided, a 135-109 defeat that was decided in the final minutes of the third quarter.
“Just wasn’t physical enough from start to finish at all five positions,” coach Tyronn Lue said.
The Clippers’ largest margin of defeat this season, and their second consecutive defeat in which they surrendered at least 135 points, was a bitter way to enter the final hours leading up until Thursday’s noon PST trade deadline. The team that takes the floor next, Thursday in Dallas, is expected to look different from the one that trudged out of Memphis after trailing by as many as 34 points. Most conspicuously, backup center Serge Ibaka never played — the only Clipper not to see action on a night when Lue badly needed muscle inside and rebounding help, and he played reserves exclusively during the fourth quarter.
Lue indeed used a three-center rotation, only after starter Ivica Zubac and backup Isaiah Hartenstein had finished their first-half shifts, Lue turned to a small-ball lineup. Ibaka, whose $9.7-million contract expires after this season, has been widely expected to be moved ahead of the deadline.
