The Memphis Grizzlies have been in and out of the news recently due to behavior on and off the court from Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks. The recent news resulted in the Memphis Grizzlies players holding a closed locker room meeting. The media wasn’t told much about the meeting and what was said. However, Chams did provide this interesting quote from Steven Adams who has taken on the lead to help guide the team.
Steven Adams spoke out about how the team needs to show better discipline on the road and how they need to avoid going out on the road.
This comment from Adams got us wondering about the specific point “avoid going out on the road”. We thought this might be the perfect opportunity to have our new master of data James do an analysis of the Memphis Grizzlies’ record compared to the nightlife of every road game. The sample is incredibly small but we are shocked by the results. We will let James share his findings.
For our analysis, we used BestLifeOnline’s list of the “50 Hardest Partying Cities in America“. They rated every city in America based on a set of criteria including the following:
- The population of the city.
- The latest time you can buy a beer and the Last call at bars: according to localalcohollaws.com.
- The number of bars and nightclubs per 100k people and the amount of money spent at these establishments: according to the U.S. Census.
- The number of events taking place per weekend: per Eventbrite.
- The percent of binge drinkers per county: per County Health Rankings.
All of these factors then went into their “Hard Party Score”. We then compared the Grizzlies’ record on the road to the hard party score to see if there was a correlation between straight-up losses and against the spread.
Additionally, we compared the “Against the spread (AGS)” record as well to see if party cities impacted their ability to cover the spread.
Memphis Grizzlies’ road record against the spread
| ATS | In a “Party City” | Not in a “Party City” |
| W | 4 | 8 |
| L | 14 | 7 |
- This year the Memphis Grizzlies have been 100% more likely to beat the spread on the road in a non-party city vs. a party city. What’s even more concerning about this is the performance on Sundays.
- Against the spread, the Memphis Grizzlies have lost 14 times when in a Party City.
Memphis Grizzlies’ road record in party vs. non-party cities
| Straight Up | Party City | Not |
| W | 5 | 6 |
| L | 13 | 9 |
- The Grizzlies’ road record in party cities vs. non is also a bit negative. While it appears the Grizzlies are able to pull out some wins the games are very close. In this case, we wouldn’t recommend taking the spread.
Memphis Grizzlies Road Win Average by Day
This table shows the win percentages for two types of bets, ATS and SU, for each day of the week along with the number of data points considered for each day.
| Memphis Grizzlies Win % | |||
| ATS | SU | Games Played | |
| Sunday | 0.0% | 16.7% | 6 |
| Monday | 33.3% | 33.3% | 6 |
| Tuesday | 0.0% | 0.0% | 2 |
| Wednesday | 40.0% | 60.0% | 5 |
| Thursday | 50.0% | 16.7% | 6 |
| Friday | 40.0% | 40.0% | 5 |
| Saturday | 100.0% | 66.7% | 3 |
- The highest win percentages are on Saturday for both ATS (100%) and SU (66.7%), but the data is based on only 3 data points.
- Wednesday has the next highest ATS win percentage (40.0%), but with 5 data points, while Thursday has the highest SU win percentage (50.0%) with 6 data points.
- Sunday has the lowest ATS win percentage (0.0%) and Monday has the lowest SU win percentage (33.3%), both based on 6 data points.
- Tuesday has no wins for either type of bet, but this data is based on only 2 data points.
The data does seem to suggest that the Memphis Grizzlies perform worse in cities that have a solid nightlife. It also appears that there is some correlation between the nightlife and performance for a Sunday game. I would imagine that staying out late on a Saturday would result in more sluggish play the next day. Ultimately, we wouldn’t bet against the spread on Sunday, Tuesday, or any time the Memphis Grizzlies are traveling to a ‘party city’.
