After a rather dreary Monday night crowd at FedEx Forum, when it was raining and the game was competing against Monday Night Football and baseball playoff games, things should pick up Saturday night as the Miami Heat come to town to play the Grizzlies. Penny Hardaway, Earl Barron (right), Jason Williams and Alexander Johnson all return to a town they have called home in this game. Hopefully this will drag a few more fans out of the comforts of their couch to see a game in person.

It isn’t like people will be choosing to watch the Tigers play Rice after all.

For an excellent review of the Pacers game check out Grizzlies Nation. The blogger obviously got to watch the game (I was blocked by Comcast not showing the game on NBA League Pass) and has some excellent insight into people’s play in the game.

The Grizzlies got some encouraging news on Pau Gasol’s ankle injury but he will still miss the next two games at least so that he can be fully prepared to open the season healthy. Gasol has been playing a lot of basketball lately with the FIBA Europe tournament concluding just a few days before the start of training camp. A week of rest won’t hurt his playing shape and actually may recharge his batteries somewhat.

Speaking of Pau Gasol, do people think he will be the focus of the Grizzlies attack this season? So far Gasol has taken a back seat to the perimeter players like Rudy Gay, Mike Miller and super-sub Juan Carlos Navarro in shot attempts. Could be just a pre-season mirage or it could be something more. Iavaroni never shot a lot as a player and Phoenix, where Marc coached last, didn’t run a lot of plays for interior shooters either. Shades of Blue took a look at what to expect from Gasol this season.

AOL’s Fanhouse ran an interesting blog on why Memphis should trade Mike Miller. Don’t forget to read the Shades of Blue rebuttal on this subject.

Grizzblogs is up and running on the Memphis Grizzlies web page. Casey Jacobsen, Pete Pranica, Graham Kendrick and Chris Avis are posting on different issues with the Grizzlies. Should be fun reading when you need a Grizz Fix.

Has Mike Conley, Jr. dropped the Jr. from his name? The rumor is that he wants to be known as simply Mike Conley now. Iwill call him whatever he wants as long as he calls Memphis home for a long time. While not quite ready to take over the starting role yet you have to be excited to see his double-double (11 pts and 10 assists) that he threw on the Pacers the other night. He did that in only 29 minutes too!