The Grizzlies had an assist last night from the Charlotte Bobcats, who beat a fading Phoenix Suns team 114-109 for an overtime road win. The loss put the Suns a few winning-percentage points behind the Grizzlies, vaulting the Grizzlies into 7th place in the Western Conference standings. How much higher can they go? Well, according to Chris Mannix of CNNSI.com:
Memphis has a chance to rocket up the standings. Look at some of the teams around the Grizzlies. Houston is overachieving, Phoenix is fielding offers for its second-best player (Amar’e Stoudemire) and the Blazers’ injury woes have to catch up to them eventually. The Grizzlies’ phenomenal interior strength — who would have thought Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol would have formed the best 1-2 inside punch before the season? — will prevent any sustained droughts and long losing streaks. Remember, throw out the 1-8 start and Memphis has won nearly 68 percent of its games. That’s a better winning percentage than all but one team (Los Angeles) in the conference. My prediction: The Grizz lock up the No. 6 seed by April.
A mere two games separates the 4th through 11th teams in the West right now, which makes every night from here on out relevant to the standings, but tonight’s games, in particular, present a lot of room for movement. Working through the 4-11 seeds:
