Memphis Grizzlies Stomp Over New Orleans Pelicans
It wasn’t a very close game Monday night as the Memphis Grizzlies took it to the New Orleans Pelicans down in Louisiana.
It’s good to have the Memphis Grizzlies playing “grit-n-grind” basketball again.
The Grizzlies stomped all over the New Orleans Pelicans Monday night and cruised to a 110-95 win on the road.
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Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol teamed up in the post to wreak havoc on the Pelicans’ frontline. The two big men combined for 36 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists on 17-of-27 shooting from the field. Both players asserted themselves early and found a good balance between shooting and passing out of the post.
The biggest performance in this one was Mike Conley‘s double-double of 17 points and 10 assists. Conley only turned the ball over once and established himself as the best floor general on the court against New Orleans.
When Conley’s at his best, he’s driving towards the basket and doing one of three things: drawing contact, finishing at the rim or dishing the ball out to an open teammate on the perimeter or to Randolph and Gasol in the lane. Conley did all three of those things well last night and dominated Pelicans starter Norris Cole, who did have himself a game on offense but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Grizzlies’ suffocating defense.
New Orleans only shot 40.9 percent from the field overall. While the Grizzlies did let them bomb away from beyond the arc (10-of-26 on three-point attempts), Memphis held down the painted area and created problems for any player who wanted to get an easy look inside the arc.
It’s a no-brainer that the Grizzlies deserve a playoff spot in the Western Conference when their top three players are clicking together and hitting on all cylinders, but Memphis has now established itself as one of the five best teams in the conference and seem destined for a matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round of the postseason.
Now building on a winning streak of four games, the Grizzlies will travel to the Big Apple to take on the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden Friday night. If Memphis comes out victorious it would mean 30 wins before the All-Star break, something that many were questioning at the beginning of the season when the Grizzlies got off to a horrid start.