Billups, Nuggets spoil Lionel Hollins’ debut with Grizz

The Lionel Hollins era in Memphis began in much the same way that the Marc Iavaroni coaching tenure ended last week—with a noncompetitive home loss, this time to the Denver Nuggets who beat the Grizzlies 100-85 in a game that wasn’t really in doubt after halftime.

Not surprisingly, Hollins didn’t have much good to say about the mess he’s inherited though he declined to throw former coach Iavaroni under the bus in the process:

"I can't speak for anything before I got here.  But what it looks like to me is the guys aren't in good shape and, as soon as there is a little bit of adversity, we tend to start going our own way and doing our own thing. We have to develop some discipline to stay with what we are doing and play together."

The Nuggets Chauncy Billups led all scorers with 29 points, with J.R. Smith adding 20 and Kenyon Martin posting a “double double” with 12 points and 10 rebounds.  The victory improved the Nuggets’ record to 30-15 on the year—the team’s second best start after 45 games in franchise history.  Billups has been a large part of that success since coming to the team from Detroit in a trade for Alan Iverson.

At the other end of the spectrum, Memphis dropped to a woeful 11-33 with the loss and the Grizzlies have now dropped ten straight games.  This represents their longest losing streak since a 13 game string of defeats in the 2002-2003 season.  The Grizz were led by 19 points from O.J. Mayo, with Rudy Gay, Kyle Lowry and Darius Miles adding 13 points apiece.

Memphis actually led 25-24 after one, but Denver quickly regained their composure and took a nine point lead into the locker room at halftime.  The Grizzlies were never really in contention after the break.  Billups credited his teammates’ resolve with weathering Memphis’ competitive start and facilitating the victory:

"I kind of figured under some new leadership with Coach Hollins that they were going to play extremely tough and compete. Once we figured that out and said 'OK, we've got to tighten up,' we were able to make the proper adjustments and get the game under control."

Denver plays in New Orleans on Wednesday night before returning home to “The Mile High City” for games against Charlotte on Friday and San Antonio on Sunday.  Memphis travels to Oklahoma City for a game against the Thunder on Wednesday, returns home to host the LA Lakers on Saturday, and heads up to the nation’s capital to face the Washington Wizards on Monday.