Grizzlies without J-Will at Orlando Baby on the wayas preseason opens By Ronald Tillery Contact October 12, 2004 When the Grizzlies begin their exhibition schedule tonight at Orlando, they will be without starting point guard Jason Williams. That's the bad news. The good news is Williams's absence isn't because of injury. Williams didn't travel with the Grizzlies on Monday afternoon so that he could be with his pregnant wife, Denika. They are expecting their second child at any moment. The Grizzlies will gladly welcome continuity whenever it comes. Circumstances -- mostly injury related -- have forced several key players to miss practice time since training camp began a week ago. In addition to Williams, small forward James Posey is expected to sit out with a left foot sprain. Coach Hubie Brown said the Grizzlies' first outing on the eight-game preseason schedule won't reveal much. "You just want to see where you are after a week," Brown said. "We're handicapped because of the lack of key personnel. ... But this is not about wins and losses. This is about competition so that at the end of 30 days we have the right 10 guys in position. Then it's about us making the right decision because two guys will play their way off this roster." The Grizzlies still have 17 players and must trim their roster to 15 by Nov. 1. Coaches will form opinions rather quickly given the Grizzlies play two more games by the weekend. Brown said he's optimistic the Grizzlies will enjoy better health by the end of the week. They play home exhibition games Thursday (against Cleveland) and Saturday (against Indiana). Bonzi Wells, who could contend for the NBA's Sixth Man award, is emphasizing the importance of the exhibition schedule. He participated in practice Monday after operating cautiously for several days because of a strained left hamstring. "You need the exhibition games so you can get your chemistry back," Wells said. "Sometimes you get tired of playing against each other all the time. Some people feel like the eight preseason games are too much but I feel like it's the right amount of games to establish good chemistry going into the regular season." Conditioning still is a factor for the Grizzlies because they only held one scrimmage during the first week of camp. "It will be nice to get the feel of a real game," forward Pau Gasol said. "We want to set a tone early in the preseason. Training camp wasn't easy because we worked so hard and we worked under time limits. It was easy because everyone knows everybody and the system is the same. It was hard because of the level of intensity." Even so, this wasn't the most difficult week of two-a-day sessions Brown has conducted. The NBA's new rules enforcing time limits for camp compelled Brown to emphasize teaching and honing. He has yet to prioritize defensive schemes, meaning contact has been kept to a minimum. The exhibition games may not count toward wins and losses. But they are hardly meaningless. "You're still trying to get in shape and you're trying to play NBA-style basketball," forward Shane Battier said. "Most of the summer you're running up and down with no rules and you're calling your own fouls. The NBA season is a different game. You're getting adjusted to the referees and you're getting your timing when the preseason games start." -- Ronald Tillery: 529-2353 --

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