{"id":684233,"date":"2026-03-28T14:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T14:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/684233\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T14:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T14:58:16","slug":"olivier-maxence-prosper-grizzlies-set-sights-on-bulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/684233\/","title":{"rendered":"Olivier-Maxence Prosper, Grizzlies set sights on Bulls"},"content":{"rendered":"

With nine games remaining in the regular season for the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>, head coach Tuomas Iisalo has other priorities in mind ahead of his team’s game against the visiting Chicago Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Grizzlies (24-49), after all, were felled by an abundance of injuries, including season-ending ones for star guard Ja Morant, big man Zach Edey and multiple key reserves. Therefore, Iisalo is intent on getting good looks at a number of other players against the Bulls (29-44).<\/p>\n

Among the candidates is Olivier-Maxence Prosper, who has assumed a starting role and appears to be making a strong case for himself.<\/p>\n

Prosper, a 6-foot-8 forward in his third NBA season and first with the Grizzlies, started the season on a two-way contract before signing a multi-year deal on March 4.<\/p>\n

He scored a career-high 31 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the floor in Memphis’ 119-109 loss to the Houston Rockets. He made four of his five 3-pointers and added seven rebounds and two steals.<\/p>\n

Prosper scored 11 points in the final four minutes Friday to keep the Kevin Durant-led Rockets from turning the affair into a blowout.<\/p>\n

Iisalo has been impressed with Prosper’s approach and work ethic.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just putting in the hours, it’s what he puts into those hours,” Iisalo said. “He’s present in every one of those workouts.”<\/p>\n

A first-round pick in 2023, Prosper played his first two seasons with the Dallas Mavericks. The Grizzlies signed him after the Mavericks waived him last August.<\/p>\n

He said he was grateful the Grizzlies signed him to the multi-year deal.<\/p>\n

“It’s just a belief in myself and trusting that everything is going to work out,” Prosper said. “(I’m) staying true to the process, staying true to my work.”<\/p>\n

The Bulls are struggling to the finish line, too. They lost for the 22nd time in their past 28 games to fall out of contention for a play-in berth.<\/p>\n

In Friday’s 131-113 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Bulls were outscored 69-46 in the second half.<\/p>\n

Bulls coach Billy Donovan understands there’s a toughness the team needs to learn in the waning days of the season.<\/p>\n

“They really care,” Donovan said. “They really want to do well both individually and collectively, but we get down too much, and we’ve got to become a lot tougher when things aren’t going our way.”<\/p>\n

Things were going Chicago’s way in the first half against the reigning NBA champions Friday. They led 67-62 at the half, but a 22-0 Thunder run that started late in the third quarter ended the Bulls’ chances. Josh Giddey made just 1 of 11 shots from the floor and misfired on all eight of his attempts from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

Playing Memphis could prove to be a cure for Giddey. He has had five double-doubles in his last seven games against the Grizzlies, including a triple-double in the last meeting, a 132-107 Bulls’ win on March 16.<\/p>\n

Collin Sexton scored 22 off the bench to lead the Bulls against the Thunder. He is averaging 21 points in the team’s last three games.<\/p>\n

–Field Level Media<\/p>\n

\n Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Field Level Media. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Field Level Media is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With nine games remaining in the regular season for the Memphis Grizzlies, head coach Tuomas Iisalo has other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,177,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-684233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","14":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}