Those other three playoff series? Remember those? They now seem to have barely existed. With this terrific series, Memphis basketball fans have gotten — finally — a sense of what real, competitive NBA playoff basketball is like.
Let’s look at the range of NBA playoff experience this series has given local fans already:
Game 1: The First Win/The Unexpected Win: Game 1 provided the Grizzlies franchise with its first ever playoff win, obviously. But it also provided an unexpected win — a series-opening road upset over a higher-seeded team. And it provided the franchise’s first bit of positive playoff lore with Shane Battier’s go-ahead three-pointer in the final minute.
Game 2: The Hard-Fought Loss: Okay, so this wasn’t a new genre of playoff game for the Grizzlies — each of the team’s three previous post-season appearances boasted one — and only one — such game. But it had been awhile, and fighting back but coming up short felt a little better when the team had already banked a road win. In a must-win for the Spurs, with Manu Ginobili making his series debut, this was a single-digit game, buzzer-to-buzzer, and the Grizzlies rallied from an 8-point deficit down the stretch to make it a single-possession game in the final minute.
Game 3: The First Home Win: The home crowd fanned-up in a major way — Grit-Grind shirts, “Welcome to the Grindhouse” banners, The Giant Head of Eva Longoria, awesome noise and energy throughout — and were rewarded with their first home playoff win, capped by a Zach Randolph game-sealer and a Z-Bo chant ringing throughout the FedExForum corridors. The happiest the building had ever been — at least until the next game.
Game 4: The Home-Court Blowout: Here’s one I bet no-one thought would come this year. Down two at the break, the Grizzlies responded with the best half in franchise history, going up 20 midway through the fourth and provoking Spurs coach Gregg Popovich to waive the white flag with nearly six minutes to play.
