The Lead: The Grizzlies head into the All-Star break with a four-game winning streak and a 12-3 record over their past 15 games, but the real lead tonight was the injury Rudy Gay suffered in the middle of the second quarter.
Ward Archer
Rudy Gay, after his shoulder injury.
After hitting the floor on a drive and taking two free throws on one-hand shots, Gay left the game for good with a subluxation on his non-shooting shoulder. As I understand it, a subluxation is a partial dislocation. Essentially, Gay’s shoulder popped out and immediate popped back in. The damage this did will be determined by an MRI tomorrow, and until that happens, no one can be sure about how serious this is. The range could be anywhere from surgery to a few days rest and treatment. The best guess seems to be that given Gay’s youth, lack of history with shoulder problems, and where the injury occurred (i.e., shoulder rather than knee), there’s a good chance that this isn’t serious. But we won’t know until tomorrow. If nothing else, the All-Star break gives Gay a weeklong rehab cushion that could minimize the number of games missed.
As for the game itself, the Grizzlies came out tonight and blitzed the Sixers in the first quarter with stifling defense that, for once, wasn’t a by-product of Tony Allen, who played only two minutes in the quarter. The Grizzlies used five steals and three blocks in the quarter to force eight Philadelphia turnovers while not having any turnovers themselves. As a result, the Grizzlies went up 26-10 after one quarter.
The Grizzlies pushed the lead to 18 midway through the second quarter and were up 41-26 when Gay left the game. But Gay’s departure and the free-throw awkwardness — both Gay’s and the Grizzlies fouling on the other end to get him out of the game — seemed to knock the team out of its rhythm. Over the next 15 minutes, the Sixers outscored the Grizzlies 44-30 to pull to within one but could never get over the hump, as the Grizzlies used a fourth quarter shooting explosion from Mike Conley — 15 points on 6-8 shooting, including 3-4 from three-point range — to put the game away.
