Here's what went wrong in Memphis Grizzlies' Game 4 loss, NBA playoffs exit vs OKC Thunder

There was little room for error for the Memphis Grizzlies.

No Ja Morant. No Jaylen Wells. A vaunted Oklahoma City Thunder defense 48 minutes away from an opening-round sweep in the NBA playoffs.

Mistakes had no place in the equation of a potential Game 4 victory to extend the team’s season one more game. But like the series’ first three games, there were too many mistakes — 22 of them to be exact, skewering a Grizzlies performance that was full of intensity.

The Grizzlies took Oklahoma City to the wire despite a series-high 38 points from Thunder MVP finalist Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, falling 117-115 and bowing out of the postseason. Here’s where things went wrong on April 26:

Turnovers, turnovers and more turnovers

Grizzlies interim coach Tuomas Iisalo put it simply after the game: “Turnovers hurt the chances of winning.”

Memphis started fast, just as it did building a 29-point lead in Game 3, but then came the turnovers. Deflected passes, picked pockets, missteps out of bounds. The Grizzlies turned it over 22 times in Game 4 and OKC capitalized, outscoring them 32-9 on points off turnovers.

The errors and free possessions negated better shooting performances from Memphis. It shot 46.2% from the field and 38.7% from 3-point range, compared to the Thunder’s 43.6% and 20%, respectively. But OKC took 14 more shots, in large part due to the turnovers.

“They score a lot of turnovers,” Jaren Jackson Jr. said after the game. “If you turn the ball over against a team like this that’s already efficient as it is, it’s gonna be hard to win.”

Jackson was one of three Grizzlies players with five turnovers in Game 4. He took a lot of the blame for the team’s woes in that area, as did Scotty Pippen Jr., who led the team in scoring for the second game in a row, finishing with 30 points, but also had five turnovers.

“We were talking about how different the last two games would’ve been if we limited our turnovers,” Pippen said. “I feel like going forward in the offseason, that’s something we gotta work on.”

Grizzlies stars struggle without Ja Morant

Morant’s absence certainly played a role in the Grizzlies’ final game, but his teammates did not fill the gaps.

“I gotta be better,” Jackson said. “I think if I’m better today, we win this game and same with the other games, honestly.”

Jackson finished with 12 points on just 3-for-12 shooting from the field, and had four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Desmond Bane scored 23 points, but was similarly inefficient, going 9-for-21 from the field and turning it over five times.

The Thunder sent well-timed double teams at Jackson, and Bane was swarmed by OKC’s ball-pressuring guards.

“I’m putting it on myself to continue to bring that to the team because they deserve to get the best version of me out there,” Jackson said. “They brought a lot of defensive pressure. I gotta be ready for that and be able to make adjustments. You gotta have the little things down playing a team like this.”

Wendell Shepherd Jr. is The Commercial Appeal’s high school sports beat writer. Reach Wendell at wendell.shepherd@commercialappeal.com or on X @wendellsjr_.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Turnovers plague Memphis Grizzlies in NBA playoffs vs OKC Thunder

Here’s what went wrong in Memphis Grizzlies’ Game 4 loss, NBA playoffs exit vs OKC Thunder

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