The Lead: The Grizzlies ended a three-game losing streak and controlled the game from buzzer to buzzer against a Minnesota Timberwolves team on the second night of a back-to-back and without its best player in suspended forward Kevin Love. Better yet, they did so while using early and more frequent substitutions to get key players needed rest.
After playing the entire first half Monday night against the Spurs, Rudy Gay subbed out at the 4:30 mark of the first quarter tonight, while Hamed Haddadi was set to check in for Marc Gasol even before Gasol picked up a third foul at the 3:20 mark of the quarter. Even point guard Mike Conley got subbed for before the first quarter expired, with on-again, off-again reserve Jeremy Pargo getting an early shot.
“My thought process was not to play them in as extended stretches,” Lionel Hollins said after the game. “It worked pretty well because the guys who came in played well. It’s not about the minutes. It’s about the long stretches without rest. If you play 15 minutes without a rest, you’ll get tired.”
As a result, Gay (38 minutes), Conley (34), and Gasol (his season-low 29 minutes abetted by the foul trouble) played far fewer minutes than has been their recent norm. Perhaps the Grizzlies could have won more commandingly if they’d all played their more usual 40-plus, but the outcome of the game never felt in doubt despite the Wolves whittling a 17-point second-half Grizzlies lead down to 5 with a meaningless final shot from Michael Beasley.
But, as Hollins said, secondary players — particularly Dante Cunningham, Quincy Pondexter, Marreese Speights (on the boards at least), and Pargo (in spots) — played well enough to allow the Grizzlies to control the game without relying too heavily on their core guys.
Man of the Match: Dante Cunningham has really emerged over the past couple of weeks, giving the team roughly 25 efficient, energetic minutes most nights. And tonight might have been his best performance yet. It started defensively. Marreese Speights was having a terrible time keeping up with the quicker Derrick Williams in the first quarter, with Williams registering 7 points on 3-4 shooting, 4 rebounds, and a steal in the first seven-and-a-half minutes before the quicker, more alert Cunningham came in for Speights. In the 12 minutes that Williams was matched with Cunningham, he scored only 2 points on 1-4 shooting, with 4 rebounds.
