{"id":873725,"date":"2026-11-01T23:45:27","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T23:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/873725\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T23:45:27","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T23:45:27","slug":"grizzlies-notes-boozer-stewart-jackson-spencer-lopez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/873725\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies Notes: Boozer, Stewart, Jackson, Spencer, Lopez"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Grizzlies went just 25-57 last season and ended 2025\/26 in full-on tank mode, having signed several G League players to 10-day hardship contracts in the last couple months. Then they traded former franchise player Ja Morant<\/a> to Portland in July, completely turning the page on the old core.<\/p>\n

The way last season ended, combined with the trades of Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr.<\/a> and Desmond Bane<\/a>, understandably led to some frustration among fans, writes Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal<\/a> (subscriber link). But those fans have had plenty to cheer for early on in 2026\/27 \u2014 the Grizzlies blew out the Kings on Saturday to improve to 6-0, matching the best start in franchise history.<\/p>\n

No. 3 overall pick Cameron Boozer<\/a> led the way with 27 points \u2014 a new career high \u2014 to go along with nine rebounds in 26 minutes. Isaiah Stewart<\/a> (24 points on nine field goal attempts in 20 minutes) and GG Jackson II<\/a> (21 points on 10 field goal attempts in 21 minutes) had big games off the bench, with Cam Spencer<\/a> (10 points, 13 assists, five rebounds in 25 minutes) filling in admirably for Ty Jerome<\/a>, who\u2019s battling a nagging back injury.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Grizzlies:<\/p>\n

Head coach Tuomas Iisalo was pleased with Spencer\u2019s decision-making after Saturday\u2019s game (Twitter video link<\/a>). \u201cHe\u2019s one of the best shooters in the world and we encourage him to take as many shots as possible,\u201d Iisalo said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really what opens up other opportunities. \u2026 He played with a little bit different lineup composition with different type of guys. \u2026 There\u2019s a different type of balance with the units. And I thought he brought a lot of spacing. He, like you said, 13 assists and zero turnovers, played with a lot of poise, and made sure everybody was involved.\u201d
\nAsked in his post-game interview about the team\u2019s biggest challenge in the short term amid the 6-0 start, Stewart said Memphis can\u2019t become complacent (Twitter video link<\/a> via Brink Radio). \u201cWell, we can\u2019t get comfortable,\u201d the big man said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t done anything yet. We gotta continue to keep our heads down and keep chipping away at the goal. \u2026 It\u2019s great that we put ourselves in a great position, but there\u2019s a ton of work to be done.\u201d Stewart also talked about the Grizzlies\u2019 impressive depth after the game, per Michael Wallace of Grind City Media (Twitter video link<\/a>).
\nFans began chanting \u201cWe want Lopez\u201d with about nine minutes left in the fourth quarter and the game out of reach, and Iisalo eventually granted their wish, putting rookie forward Karim Lopez<\/a> in for the final four-plus minutes, Cole writes in another story<\/a> (subscription required). The 21st overall pick in the draft scored the first points of his NBA career and got the game ball afterward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Grizzlies went just 25-57 last season and ended 2025\/26 in full-on tank mode, having signed several G…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,8675,17047,1265,294,1016,44086,293,177,4070,6,1201],"class_list":["post-873725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memphis-grizzlies","tag-basketball","tag-cam-spencer","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-gg-jackson","tag-grizzlies","tag-isaiah-stewart","tag-karim-lopez","tag-memphis","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-memphisgrizzlies","tag-nba","tag-ty-jerome"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117543850721319276","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873725","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=873725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/873725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=873725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=873725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=873725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}