Marc Gasol Not Pleased With Fourth-Quarter Benching In The Grizzlies' Eighth Straight Loss On Sunday

What's the story?

The Brooklyn Nets led Sunday's game by 19 points at one point in the game, but the Memphis Grizzlies would mount a fourth-quarter comeback. Missing from that comeback was All-Star center Marc Gasol, and he wasn't happy about it.

In case you didn't know...

Gasol is the team leader in points (19.1 PPG), assists (4.1 APG), and rebounds (9.1 RPG). With the absence of guard Mike Conley, Gasol has picked up his duties of dishing out the ball to his teammates very well.

The heart of the matter...

The Associated Press reported on the eighth straight loss for Memphis; which led to the firing of coach David Fizdale on Monday afternoon. Gasol would provide the following comment on being benched in the fourth quarter (transcript provided by ESPN):

"You take it personally, Obviously, you get frustrated, and I did, and mad and start wondering.

Fizdale downplayed the benching in his post-game comments yesterday by referring to the group that started the rally by seeing "if that group could keep the momentum going, but it didn't work."

Since it "didn't work" Memphis will now look for a new head coach.

What's next?

The Memphis Grizzlies look to turn things around with interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff (who was the Associate Head Coach) as they travel to San Antonio to take on the Spurs (12-7) Wednesday night.

Author's take...

It's crazy how quick the ax can come in the NBA. Just last year the Grizzlies were a playoff team, and in actuality the last time the Grizzlies didn't make the playoffs was the 2009-10 season. It goes to show when things start to unravel and your best player isn't happy, things have to change.