Looking at how the Memphis Grizzlies match up with the Golden State Warriors
The Shooting Guards
With the shooting guard match-up it’s quite similar to the battle of the point guards. Its going be offense versus defense, shooting versus pick pocketing. Lets see who comes out on top.
Scoring.
With scoring you couldn’t have two more opposite players. Klay Thompson is going to shoot lights out. If you don’t play him tight or give him an inch of room, he is going to make you pay. Meanwhile, you could give Tony Allen all the room in the world and he still might not sink it. It’s known that Allen’s weakness has always been his scoring ability, he has only ever averaged one double digit scoring season. Whereas Klay is known for his shooting and scoring abilities. This one was easy. ADVANTAGE: Klay Thompson
Defense.
This is where it gets interesting, Tony Allen is a stud on defense. It’s where he thrives, it’s part of the reason he is still in the league. I mean, the man has been named to three All-Defensive 1st teams. This past season, he averaged 1.7 steals per game compared to Thompson’s 0.8 steals a game. Thompson is a very solid defender, he often draws one of the opponent’s best players and he almost always holds his own. But this is where Tony Allen makes his money.
ADVANTAGE: Tony Allen
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Rebounding.
Much like the point guards, rebounding isn’t one of the stats you read much into when talking about guards, but Tony Allen and Klay Thompson are both pretty solid rebounders. This past season, Allen averaged 4.6 rebounds a game versus Thompson’s 3.8 rebounds per game. Not eye-popping numbers, but solid. The difference here is THompson averaged less rebounds per game than his fellow Splash Brother, Steph Curry, who happens to be a smaller point guard. And Tony Allen finished among the Top 10 at his position in rebounding.
ADVANTAGE: Tony Allen
The Verdict.
This is another hard one, do you value defense over offense? in my opinion Thompsons offense out weighs Allens defensive advantage. Its hard to stop Klay when he gets going, no matter how good you are on defense. You can force him into bad shots but hes going to make more of those than he misses.
Overall ADVANTAGE: Klay Thompson
Next: Slim Reaper vs. Chandler Bang