It’s a good thing the Memphis Grizzlies will be facing playoff teams when the postseason starts on Saturday, because they’re having some issues putting away the slew of lottery-bound squads these past few weeks of the regular season.
The Grizzlies beat the Cleveland Cavaliers and their super rookie, Kyrie Irving, on Monday night at The Grindhouse, but only after outscoring them 32-23 in the 4th quarter, to take a 109-101 win, their 40th of the season. To put it into perspective, the Grizzlies won 46 games last year, but that came in a regular 82 game regular season. The 40 wins in a 66 game season is good for a .615 winning percentage, up from last year’s .561 clip. With a win on Thursday against the Orlando Magic, the Grizzlies would clinch their best winning percentage in a single season, topping the team’s .610 set during the 2004-2005 league year. If the Grizzlies finish with the 5 seed, that will also tie their best playoff seeding, as well.
No matter how you look at it, this has been a big year for the Memphis Grizzlies’ franchise.
On Monday, the Grizzlies got out of the blocks late again at home against a team behind them in the standings and needed a late rally to get the win. On Monday, the catalyst was Tony Allen, resident defensive special and Beale Street Bears’ choice for Defensive Player of the Year, as you can read here.
Allen had been in a shooting slump since returning from a scary head injury against the Dallas Mavericks about two weeks ago, but shot 6 of 9 from the field on Monday night. However, that wasn’t the stat that truly stood out on this night. Allen set the Grizzlies franchise single-game record with 8 steals. He ended the game dangerously close to a triple-double with his 13 points, 8 steals and 8 rebounds in just 31 minutes of play. Oh yeah, he also took his turns guarding the probable NBA Rookie of the Year in Kyrie Irving.
Irving was spectacular in defeat, totaling 25 points on 10-16 shooting to lead the Cavs. Cleveland is nearing the end of a difficult season, but they have plenty of reason to look forward to their future and Irving is the main reason. He actually kept the Cavs in the playoff hunt until an injury shelved him for almost three weeks, which was an eternity in this strike-shortened season. In his absence, the Cavs fell out of the playoff hunt and are headed for the lottery for the second straight year.
The Grizzlies got a balanced scoring effort, as everyone in the starting five scored in double digits, led by Marc Gasol and Marreese Speights with 17 apiece. O.J. Mayo added 14 off the bench for the Grizzlies who can break the franchise record for consecutive home wins if they beat Orlando in Thursday night’s regular season finale.