Mike Conley Leads The Memphis Grizzlies Over The Spurs To Get To First In The West
By Chris Kern
Mike Conley was sensational yet again and it led to a Memphis Grizzlies victory. They are now in first place in the western conference.
The Grizzlies dealt with foul trouble all game but they continued to battle like they always do. Marc Gasol and Jaren Jackson Jr. both ended with five fouls while JaMychal Green fouled out of the game.
The Spurs used that to their advantage which helped them stay in the game and eventually take the lead late in the fourth quarter.
The foul troubles to the bigs really hurt the Grizzlies on both ends of the floor but they got some key contributions from some other guys.
The fouls limited their minutes dramatically, Jackson played just 12 minutes while Green played only 19.
This led to Kyle Anderson playing extra minutes. It was against his former team so he was more than motivated to put in the extra effort to do so.
He finished the game with nine points and nine rebounds in 38 minutes. It was his second highest minutes the whole season; he played 39 minutes in the road win in Milwaukee.
The Grizzlies have played a lot of small lineups but they found a way to get stops still but they also got big contributions from Omri Casspi.
He scored 11 points and 6 rebounds in 19 minutes of action. That was a season-high in rebounding while also tying a high in scoring.
Gasol didn’t make a three in this game but he had another big impact. He finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds as he had to give a little bit extra with his fellow big men out of the game with foul trouble.
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Both teams did only commit nine turnovers which were part of the reason teams scored the ball well in the first half.
A controversial ending went in the Grizzlies favor as Gasol hit two free throws with 0.7 seconds left to put Memphis up one. LaMarcus Aldridge appeared to get fouled on the shot afterward but they didn’t call it.
It wasn’t pretty but when did the Grizzlies ever try to make it pretty, they just want to win. They were led once again by their star point guard Mike Conley.