The Lead: Tuesday night, the Grizzlies moved one step closer to their first playoff birth since 2006, but it wasn’t because of anything they did. Roughly 15 minutes after a frustrating, controversial loss to the Clippers, the Grizzlies players sat in their lockers, watching the final minutes of a game in Houston, where the home-team Rockets were being upset by the Sacramento Kings. The Rockets’ loss reduced the Grizzlies’ “magic number” from 3 to 2.
Earlier, out on the FedExForum court, the Grizzlies gave their most lackluster home performance in at least a month, squandering a 13-point second-half lead with poor shooting, bobbled passes, and a failure to either exploit or counter fourth-quarter match-up problems.
But the poor basketball for 47-plus minutes was overshadowed by a chaotic, confusing finish. After Mike Conley scored on a fastbreak drive to cut the deficit to one, the Clippers had the ball, up 82-81, with 29.5 seconds left on the clock. With, apparently, 0.2 seconds left on the 24-second shot clock, Clippers point guard Eric Bledsoe and the Grizzlies’ Tony Allen collided in the lane, a few feet beyond the restricted circle.
