Heartbreak Hotel: Grizzlies Surrender Game 1, Home-Court Advantage.
You ever hear someone say there are two sides to every story? Depending on who you are, your point of view of any situation is different depending on your agenda. Sad, but ultimately true.
Sunday night’s game at the FedEx Forum between the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers was no different. If you’re a Grizzlies fan it was an epic collapse and if you’re a Clippers fan, an epic comeback. I don’t know why it can’t be both, but when the history books are written, it’s usually one or the other.
For most of the night, three whole quarters to be exact, this was a Beale Street Beatdown, an ambush that Metta World Peace’s elbow would have been proud of. In front of a packed house celebrating another crucial step for the Grizzlies franchise.
If there’s one thing Memphians know how to do, it’s celebrate, and like their Grizzlies, they were up to the task. Well for most of the night, anyway.
In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the Clippers went from being down 27 points to closing the game out on a 28-3 run.
The most disturbing thing about the game for the Grizzlies has to be the fact that they played way above their heads, especially from three-point range, as they hit 11 threes, but also defensively. Everyone knows the Grizzlies like to really get after it on defense, and did that for the better part of game 1 as well.
But that fourth quarter. Dear Lord, that fourth quarter. I don’t even know where to begin. The run started innocently enough, this is the NBA after all. The stretch that stands out to me specifically was a run of three consecutive Nick Young three-pointers as the USC shooting guard went from unwanted chucker in Washington to Vinnie Johnson in a span of two seconds. He wasn’t a team killer anymore, he was a crowd killer. After his third three, Lionel Hollins’ alarm clock went off on the bench, as he woke up in time to call a timeout.
Understand, Hollins is a great coach and I’ve campaigned for him to win the NBA’s Coach of the Year award for his work in the regular season this year. That said, he couldn’t have been worse on Sunday night. The man got outworked by Vinny Del Negro on his home floor. The Grizzlies were 25-7 in that building all year and Vinny came in, inserted Eric Bledsoe and Nick Young and watched as the Clippers escaped off nights from Chris Paul and Blake Griffin to win a road playoff game.
The Grizzlies were supposed to be the team that went 10 deep, with major contributors off the bench. It was supposed to be Memphis that put the stops on late in games to pull out big wins. The Grizzlies were the team that had been here before, weren’t they?
Anyone that was in the building last night knew that Zach Randolph wasn’t the Zach from the 2011 playoffs last night. Whether it was just for that night remains to be seen, but even as Zach hit his first two shots, it looked like he struggled to get his shots off. Again, this was clear to anyone watching the game. So obviously Hollins played Zach 32 minutes.
The other instance that stood out to me was the break between the first and second quarters. Marc Gasol came out of the gates hot, posting 10 points in the first quarter alone, only missing one shot. When the team takes the court for the second quarter, he’s been replaced by Marreese Speights. The hottest guy in the gym gets taken down immediately. He would only score four more points the entire game. On top of that, Gasol took his last shot of the game with nine minutes left in the third quarter. Yes, he played the fourth quarter.
Hollins’ rough night was especially clear late in the fourth quarter when the Clippers run had carried them to within three points of the Grizzlies with plenty of time left on the clock. Hollins put the starters back in, and had Tony Allen guard Chris Paul for the first time all night. Now, I think Allen will have to guard Paul in any big situation because he is the league’s premier perimeter defender and Paul is the league’s best point guard. I liked the match up and continue to like the match up.
However, Allen hadn’t taken his turns on Paul all night and came into the game cold to shut down one of the league’s best five or six players. To put it into perspective, this would be the equivalent of giving Albert Pujols the night off, only to have him pinch hit against Mariano Rivera late in a game and with two strikes already on him, or asking a guy who hasn’t played all night to take over at left tackle and block Julius Peppers. It’s a panic move at best.
Then there was that terrible final possession when Rudy Gay dribbled the clock down, right into a double team at the top of the key and got the rare double-contested look for a game-winning jumper. This may shock you, but he missed and the Grizzlies finished off the biggest meltdown in NBA playoffs history.
The spineless Memphis media asked Hollins about that possession after the game and Hollins pushed Gay in front of the bus so violently that Rudy’s mother is probably covered with skid marks. Hollins said that was the shot that the Grizzlies got because “that’s what Rudy wanted to do.”
Who coaches this team, Lionel? What did you want to do? You’re Head Coach Lionel Hollins, not Rudy Gay’s lap dog. I’m sure that is the shot Gay wanted, as he’s developed a reputation for taking and making big shots, but when it became clear that the possession was breaking down and he was over dribbling, it’s your job to step in and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Game 1 didn’t go the way the Grizzlies would have wanted at all, but the good thing about the playoffs is that there’s usually another game just around the corner and game 2 will give the Grizzlies an opportunity to get even and get some positive momentum as they head out west. A loss on Wednesday night would be absolutely devastating, but we did see what kind of team the Grizzlies can be when they’re properly motivated.
This team has taken some tough losses before and bounced right back up. In a way, Zach Randolph getting knocked to the floor, not getting up for a few seconds and responding with this is probably the most Memphis Grizzlies thing that’s ever happened. Game 5 in San Antonio was crushing and the Grizzlies responded by closing the series out at home in game 6 last year. The Grizzlies lost games 4 and 5 against Oklahoma City last year and had no reason to circle the wagons and win game 6 at home, but they did. This is a tough team, both physically and mentally and one minor setback won’t derail what could be a promising run for the team.
It was Nolan Richardson that once said “All sickness is not death,” in response to small set backs. The Grizzlies are sick after game 1, but they’re not even close to being dead.