“Tank” Job?: The Grizzlies lost 102-89 on the road to the Portland Trailblazers last night. The losing wasn’t unexpected — I thought that was the most likely outcome regardless. But how it happened was surprising. The Grizzlies — in what seemed to be a last-minute decision, given the nature of Tony Allen‘s tweets during the day — decided to sit Zach Randolph and Tony Allen, eventually citing nagging injuries as a reason.
After the New Orleans Hornets lost to the Utah Jazz earlier in the week, the Grizzlies were in control of their seeding destiny: Winning the last two games would have assured them of the #6 seed. The wrinkle was that the team didn’t yet know what opponent the #6 seed would give them.
By sitting Allen and Randolph, the Grizzlies all but abdicated their claim on the uncertainty of the six seed, which Portland claimed with a victory. (It should be noted, however, that the players who took the court seemed to play to win. The game was tied at halftime and was still up for grabs until the final minutes.)
One of two decisions was made here — or perhaps a combination of two decisions: On one level, the Grizzlies may have decided that a match-up with the Spurs (which would happen at #8) is preferable to a match-up with the defending champion Lakers (which could happen by moving up) and may have decided to choose certainty over risk.
