The Lead: The Grizzlies bounced back from their season-worst 33-point loss to the Miami Heat on Saturday with a 23-point win tonight. (Subject for someone else to research: Is this is biggest game-to-game point swing in franchise history?) After losing their past two games and looking ahead to brutal road games at New York, Boston, and Chicago in the next couple of weeks, the Grizzlies badly needed this one tonight. They got it dominating this one from buzzer to buzzer — leading by as many as 31 points and never trailing.
But the win probably takes a back seat to injury issues as the story of the night. And the news isn’t as good on that front.
Rudy Gay, out since February 15th with a left shoulder injury, had a follow-up MRI this morning, and the news was mixed. Gay had hoped to be cleared for on-court work, but that didn’t happen. Results showed that the shoulder is healing — allaying, for the moment, fears that surgery might be required — but not fast enough for Gay to get back to basketball activity. The team is not specifying a timetable for Gay’s return, but he is likely to be re-evaluated in a couple of weeks with the hope that Gay can still get back in time for the post-season.
As if the Gay news wasn’t enough, Marc Gasol came up limping in the second quarter after Clippers center DeAndre Jordan stepped on his right ankle — the same one Gasol injured in the preseason. Gasol came back to play most of the third quarter, but went to the locker room for x-rays when he finally left the court. The results were negative, but Gasol is being listed as day-to-day.
