Welcome back to Philips Arena, Ed Davis! Here’s hoping you’ll get to stay for the game this time around!

The Memphis Grizzlies’ new majority owner Robert Pera has gone all in, hoping that newly hired Basketball Operations VP John Hollinger is smarter than the average bear. The distinguished stat geek spurred Pera’s front office into pulling the lever on two trades so far. One freed up cap space with the unloading of Marreese Speights, Wayne Ellington, and Josh Selby to Cleveland along with a protected first-rounder in exchange for seldom-used Jon Leuer. The second move was a three-team deal that caused Davis to catch a flight out of Atlanta to Memphis just before his Toronto Raptors played the Hawks last week. Davis arrived along with Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye of the Pistons and a future second-rounder, in exchange for the team’s longtime top scorer Rudy Gay and Hamed Haddadi.

The moves give Memphis greater depth at the forward spots. But while everyone knows some players will have to collectively pick up Gay’s scoring slack, Coach Lionel Hollins acknowledges that that there will be added pressure on Marc Gasol and reserve Darrell Arthur to hold it down at the center spot, with Speights and Haddadi gone.

"One of the issues that I have is that neither Darrell or Ed (Davis) are fives,” Hollins told the Commercial Appeal last night. “We don't have another big guy. We weren't able to play big and have two bigger people across the board because we don't have a bigger guy to put in the game… The disappointing part is (Phoenix) outscored us in the paint 52-40, and they got 11 offensive rebounds for 16 second-chance points.”

The Phoenix Suns left the FedEx Forum crowd feeling the Beale Street Blues last night. The loss was Memphis’ third in five games, the second in that stretch against the bottom three of the Western Conference. Gasol had a particularly underwhelming night during the 96-90 loss, fouling out after going just 2-for-8 and tallying six points and four rebounds in 22 minutes of action. Gasol and what passes for Grizzly centers these days will be looking to bounce back after getting outplayed by the Suns’ Marcin Gortat (20 points, 8-for-10 shooting) and Jermaine O’Neal (14 points, 5-for-7 shooting). Arthur shot just 1-for-10, while Davis managed his first Memphis field goal in the final quarter.

Look for Davis (top 15 in the NBA for field goal percentage, 54.5 FG%), to get more action on the offensive end tonight. It would also be crazy to overlook Daye, who lit up Atlanta with a season-high 20 points (9-for-11 shooting) on January 4. Since that one game, he’s shot 9-for-34 over the course of 12 NBA appearances. Daye’s season-high in rebounds came the week before that against the Hawks, too (11 rebounds on December 26).

The Grizz (30-17) hope to keep up in the Southwest Division with a San Antonio team that’s on a ten-game winning streak but heading out on their massive annual rodeo roadtrip and playing without Tim Duncan or Manu Ginobili. A loss tonight threatens to drop them in the opposite direction, behind

Denver and possibly even Golden State for 6th in the West.

While the Grizzlies kick the tires on their new arrivals, it will be incumbent upon players already familiar with Hollins’ system to step up their play. One bright spot last night was backup guard Jerryd Bayless, who dropped a season-high 29 points, his third 20-plus-point game in the last ten days. Bayless has shot 54.4 FG% in his last eight games and started in a small backcourt, after the Gay trade, until Prince could get up to speed.

The Hawks (26-21) should catch a bit of a break from having three point shots plopped in their eyes, as accomplished proficiently by Paul George, Nate Robinson, and Carmelo Anthony in recent games. Memphis ranks next-to-last in threes attempted (13.7 3PA/G) and last in threes made (4.6 3PM/G). Gay and Ellington are gone while their most accurate shooter, Quincy Pondexter, remains out with a sprained MCL. Prince shot 43% on threes with Detroit, but that’s not his forte. Look for Hollins to bring in Chris Johnson (no, not that one, this one’s the rookie D-Leaguer from Dayton), amid his second 10 day contract, if he’s needed to help stretch the floor.

The Grindhouse Gang has the #1 scoring defense in the NBA (89.7 opponent PPG), and accomplishes this by playing at a grindingly-slow pace (28th in the NBA), one that will likely get even slower with Gay out of the picture. They seize possessions by generating turnovers (15.7 opponent TOs per 100 possessions and 9.0 steals per game, 2nd most in NBA), and maintain possessions with strong offensive rebounding (13.7 O-Rebs per game and 32.6 O-Rebs per 100 possessions, tops in NBA). The 22 turnovers by the Suns were the most produced by Memphis in a month-and-a-half.

As the dust settles on the trade, it remains to be seen whether All-Star Zach Randolph (NBA’s top active rebounder at 11.8 RPG), Marc Gasol, and the rest of the Grizzlies cast can maintain their position as the league’s top offensive rebounding team and the NBA’s stingiest team on the glass overall (38.7 opponent rebounds per game, fewest in NBA). Speights and Haddadi were first and third, respectively, in offensive rebounding percentage on the team.

Mike Conley (2.3 steals per game, #1 among active NBA players), Tony Allen, Bayless, and Prince will all be expected to put ample pressure on the ballhandlers coming up the floor for the Hawks. Memphis is 17-1 when they hold their opponents under 20 assists in a game, the one loss coming last night against Phoenix, who had 19.

Meanwhile, last night’s 114-103 loss to the Pacers was just the second loss for Atlanta in 16 games where they produced more than 25 assists (26 assists in that game). Largely due to their pace of play, Memphis has only given up assisted baskets that many times in three games this season, all losses. In the December 8 matchup, Atlanta out-assisted the Grizzlies 20-15, led by Jeff Teague (six assists, zero turnovers).

The Hawks won that game thanks in large part to strong perimeter shooting and fortuitous trips to the free throw line by Lou Williams (21 points, 4-for-6 from 3-point land, 5-for-7 FTs). With Williams now out for the season, Kyle Korver (DNP on Dec. 8; 2-for-9 on threes last night), Devin Harris (3 points on 0-for-2 shooting on Dec. 8; DNP last night), Anthony Morrow (6 points on 1-for-5 shooting on Dec. 8; DNP last night), John Jenkins (DNP on Dec. 8, 14 points last night with 9-for-10 on FTs) and Jannero Pargo will all need to step up their contributions.

Go Hawks!

~lw3