Memphis Grizzlies: Ranking NBA Playoff Runs During The Mike Conley, Marc Gasol Era

2015

Now we get into the playoffs where the Grizzlies won series, starting off with the 2015 playoffs that included a series win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Portland was actually the four seed since the NBA used to have rules that division winners had to be in the top four, but the Grizzlies still had homecourt since they had a better record.

The Blazers had some of the players who make them so special today, but they were just much younger and not as accomplished. Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge were the leaders of this team as they both averaged more than 21 points per game. They also had other really good players such as CJ McCollum and Nicolas Batum who played key roles.

The Grizzlies got some key contributions from Courtney Lee in this series as he averaged 17.2 points per game in this series which was up from his 10.1 points per game during the regular season. They also got contributions from their key players including Marc Gasol and Mike Conley.

After beating Portland in five games they faced the Golden State Warriors in the next round. This was a matchup of contrasting styles as the Grizzlies offense ran through their big men while the Warriors did a lot of their damage from the perimeter.

One of the storylines around this series was masked, Mike Conley. He suffered an injury in the series against Portland which required him to miss the final two games of that series, while also missing the first game of this series.

The Grizzlies competed hard in this series against the Warriors, but they were unable to make the shots necessary to win four games. They did take a 2-1 lead in the series, but they lost the next three to end their season.

The three-point shooting was the biggest difference in this series. The Grizzlies shot just 27% from deep while the Warriors made 39%. That’s a huge difference that will be difficult to overcome before we even discuss the attempts each team shot.

Memphis attempted 92 three-pointers while the Warriors attempted 175. Stephen Curry went 26-64 in this series which is more makes then the 25 that the Grizzlies had as a whole team. That is something that Memphis has struggled with over the past couple of seasons as well and will be something they look to improve upon before their next postseason appearance.