I expected the Grizzlies to come out with a lot of energy being back home in Memphis...what I didn't expect was that the Spurs would come out playing so badly. As the 1st quarter went on I was wondering if they would surpass the 9 points they scored in the 4th quarter of Game 2.
How many coaches would bench the whole starting five? If you didn't see the game, that's what Popovich did in the first quarter after. Grizzlies led 29-13 after one. I wasn't happy with that result (obviously neither was Pop), but I new if the Spurs just took care of the ball that the Grizzlies offense couldn't keep putting up 25+ point quarters. I was more than happy that they got right back in it, outscoring the Grizzlies 27-15 in the 2nd to trail just 44-40 at halftime.
In the 4th quarter I was thinking if the Spurs could go on one more run they would put the game away. They never got it. The Grizzlies defense had much to do with that. Spurs finally got the run in overtime, scoring 18 points in the 5 extra minutes. It was the Big Three that got it done in this game. Tony Parker 26 points, Tim Duncan 24, and Manu Ginobili 19. They each had 5 assists apiece. Duncan pulled down 10 rebounds and Ginobili 7.
Turnovers almost cost the Spurs this game (17 is too much). I think they had 7 in the first quarter and Parker had 7 for the game (most of those in the 1st). They also gave up 19 offensive rebounds, 9 by Zach Randolph and 5 from Marc Gasol. I love Matt Bonners effort, but he can't handle Randolph, who is just abusing Bonner on the offensive glass. I would hate to see what would happen if Tiago Splitter would foul out.
I thought the Spurs low post defense was much better than when these teams met two years ago, but I didn't think they could bottle up Randolph...at least not for 3 straight games. Randolph is just 12-40 (.300) in the series so far. While you can say that's due to the Spurs defense, that doesn't explain why he's just 7-16 (.438) from the free throw line (he shot .750 for the season). Coach Lionel Hollins is a great motivator, but he's not showing me much on the strategic end. The Grizzlies haven't changed much to get the ball down inside to Randolph. Mind you, I haven't seen the Grizzlies play much, so maybe they don't run the offense through Randolph, but the statistics show that Randolph was the Grizzlies leading scorer and the leader in shot attempts. In Game 3, Mike Conley took 21 shots to Randolph's 14.
In the last two games, the Grizzlies have held the Spurs under 90 in regulation, pulled down 38 offensive rebounds, and won the turnover battle. Those were the things I thought they would need to beat the Spurs...the Grizzlies got it, but still lost. They just can't score enough points without Randolph's normal contribution. The Grizzlies just aren't a good shooting team. Randolph shot .460 for the season. Conley .440, Tony Allen .445 and Quincy Pointdexter was just .428 (so he's shooting way over his average for the series). Before you think that Rudy Gay would've helped, he shot just .408 for the Grizzlies. Gasol is the only Grizzly with a decent shooting average (and he's excellent at .494), but his game isn't scoring so he isn't going to shoot a lot (he was 3rd in attempts behind Randolph and Conley).
Unless Randolph can get going I think this ends on Memorial Day. Which reminds me of the "Memorial Day Miracle" game winner by Sean Elliott in 1999 (Game 2 vs. Blazers in Western Conference Finals). If Elliott didn't shoot off his toes he would have been out of bounds. What I remember most was Elliott, after making that shot, pointing at Mario Ellie saying "I told you, I told you."
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