Vince Williams Jr. scored a career-high 25 points, Scotty Pippen Jr. played the best game of his career in just his second appearance of the season and the Memphis Grizzlies sent the host Miami Heat to their fourth consecutive loss with a 105-96 win on Wednesday.
Pippen, who Memphis signed to a two-way contract last week, came off the bench to score 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the floor, grab six rebounds and dish out six assists. All were career highs for the second-year guard, who had only played a total of 37 minutes in the NBA prior to Wednesday.
He logged a critical 24 minutes against Miami, during which he extended a three-point Grizzlies lead to five with 2:13 remaining on a drive into the lane.
Twelve seconds later, Tyler Herro hit a 3-pointer for the last of his 18 points, cutting the Memphis lead to two, but Pippen found an open Williams for a 3-pointer that effectively put the game away.
Williams shot 5-for-6 from beyond the arc, pacing Memphis to a 17-for-36 night from deep. Miami went 11 of 33 from long range and just 33 of 82 from the floor to the Grizzlies’ 36 of 80.
John Konchar added a breakaway layup off an outlet pass from Williams following Williams’ late trey, completing Konchar’s first double-double of the season. He recorded 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Six Grizzlies scored in double figures, including GG Jackson, who went for 17 points off the bench. Jaren Jackson Jr. finished with 15 points despite shooting just 5-for-21 from the floor, while David Roddy added 10 points.
Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo and Caleb Martin each scored 15 points for Miami. Adebayo grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds, had six assists and blocked six shots.
Reserve Terry Rozier, playing in his first game with Miami since being traded from Charlotte, scored nine points on just 3-of-11 shooting and committed three of the Heat’s 17 total turnovers.
The Grizzlies took a 49-42 lead into the break behind 13 points from Williams.
–Field Level Media