After 'trying everything,' the Memphis Grizzlies finally won a home game | Giannotto

Marcus Smart was yelling on the sideline again Wednesday night.

It was another fourth quarter of another Memphis Grizzlies home game, just three days since Smart yelled at his teammates on the bench and called their effort “embarrassing” in a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Now the injured guard was yelling while almost in a defensive stance nearest the Grizzlies’ bench. He was yelling at referee Marc Davis about a particularly bad no-call on a Jaren Jackson Jr. drive. He was yelling instructions all the way down court as the Utah Jazz made one last-gasp push. He was yelling because leaving FedExForum with anything other than “All I Do Is Win” blasting from the speakers might well have been a breaking point for this group.

He knew it. Coach Taylor Jenkins knew it. The whole team knew it. Just about everyone in the building knew it. So when he stopped yelling, as the crowd stood to salute the Grizzlies’ 105-91 victory and started scrambling to grab those blessed streamers falling from the FedExForum catwalk for the first time this season, Smart came bounding off the court alongside Jacob Gilyard with a playful smile on his face.

There was no hiding the relief.

“Thank God we got a win tonight,” Bismack Biyombo said, and he spoke on behalf of an entire fan base.

The Memphis Grizzlies finally got a home win, and good lord, did they need one. They were the last team in the NBA without one. They had never gone this long into a season without winning at home, not even when the franchise was in Vancouver. They were 0-8 at FedExForum after having the best home record in the NBA last season.

A glance at the schedule suggested the Jazz were their best shot at ending this ignominious distinction before Ja Morant returned in December. So this was not an ordinary midweek November game against Utah, and it hardly mattered that the Jazz’s best player, Lauri Markkanen, wasn’t playing.

This was the first time the no-good, dirty-rotten, very-bad start to the Grizzlies’ season felt like it veered close to desperation for the players.

You could hear it in their voices. You could sense it from the snippets of information that emerged about what happened behind the scenes in recent days. You could feel how devastating anything but a win Wednesday could have been.

It started with Derrick Rose’s locker room statement calling out the team’s lack of communication. It got more serious once Smart dressed down the team in public Sunday. Jenkins said Smart said more to the team in the locker room afterward. That then led to a Tuesday practice forward David Roddy described as “led by the players.”

“One of the hardest practices of my career,” forward Ziaire Williams said.

“We’ve been trying everything,” Rose said after Wednesday’s pregame shootaround.

That meant the game began with the Grizzlies’ seventh different starting lineup since Nov. 1. Rose and Roddy were in, Santi Aldama and Jacob Gilyard were out. And then, in front of a relatively sparse crowd, Memphis fell behind, 15-7.

Jaylon Nowell, who the Grizzlies signed to an emergency 10-day contract last Friday, was the first player off the bench. Before any of the young players Memphis has bet on in the draft in recent years. It was an indictment on the roster, which is currently a mess because of Morant’s suspension, a ridiculous run of bad injury luck, and front office decisions that have weakened the team’s depth.

Only four players who were playing meaningful minutes for the Grizzlies in last year’s playoff series against the Lakers were part of the rotation Wednesday. No wonder they entered the season's third meeting with the Jazz — the first two were Memphis losses — with a record that multiple players referred to as “three and whatever.” This team went from playoffs to pathetic in the blink of an eye.

But Wednesday, Roddy and Williams started hitting the 3-pointers they’ve so frequently missed this season. Then Rose turned back the clock, knocking a ball away from Utah’s Collin Sexton for a fast-break layup to ignite a surge. Then Roddy found Williams in transition for one of those running alley-oop dunks Morant used to feed to Williams all the time two years ago.

Then the defense, led by Jackson, got intimidating. FedExForum, the building Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards called “dead” a few nights before, suddenly seemed alive again after the best second quarter of the season.

Then, of course, the lights went out for a few minutes to start the second half. Even the arena electrical board apparently wasn’t used to the home team winning anymore. But the streamers still worked, despite not being used since April.

Maybe it's the moment this season turns around. Or maybe it's just one good night sandwiched between a bunch of bad ones. But after all that losing and all that yelling, there was hope in the air again. Only eight more games until the Grizzlies' superstar can return.

"It’s going to be a good next month," Jackson declared. "There’s a man at home licking his chops.”

You can reach Commercial Appeal columnist Mark Giannotto via email at mgiannotto@gannett.com and follow him on X: @mgiannotto

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis Grizzlies finally won a home game, and boy did they need it