The Lead: The Grizzlies had a tense but productive few minutes tonight, closing with a 22-10 run in the final 5:11 to overcome a fourth-quarter deficit and defeat the Spurs, while, at the same time, the Miami Heat was holding off the Houston Rockets down in Florida. The results gave the Grizzlies a bit of breathing room, pushing their lead over the hard-charging Rockets to 2.5 games with eight games left to play for the Grizzlies, nine for the Rockets.
The past three games — at Boston, at Chicago, and home against San Antonio, three of the league’s five best teams record-wise — were supposed to be a dangerous stretch before the schedule lightened, but the Grizzlies nearly swept it, bracketing wins against the Celtics and Spurs around a loss to the Bulls in which the Grizzlies had a chance to tie on the final shot.
The Grizzlies got a bit of help tonight — Tim Duncan was out with a sprained ankle, Manu Ginobili bumped knees with Marc Gasol in the second quarter and ended up exiting the game in the third quarter as a result, and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich exited even earlier, tossed for arguing a no-call on the play where Ginobili went down.
But this one still wasn’t easy, with the Spurs starting each half on a 7-0 run and with reserve guard George Hill pouring in 30 off the bench on a series of tough, dynamic makes.
The victory moves the Grizzlies to 41-33, besting last year’s win total by one and guaranteeing the team’s first non-losing season since 2005-2006.
Man of the Match: The Grizzlies threw a trio of heroes up the pop chart in the fourth quarter. First runner-up O.J. Mayo, helped the team respond to the Spurs 7-0 by scoring eight straight for the Grizzlies early in the quarter — two three-pointers and a lay-up. In all, Mayo came off the bench to score 17 points in 27 minutes, including 4-6 three-point shooting, exactly the kind of production the team envisioned from Mayo when they moved him into the sixth-man role but has rarely gotten. The 17 points was the most Mayo has scored in two weeks and the four threes was his highest total since before Christmas.
