With a 112-105 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers at FedExForum Friday night and an earlier loss by the Portland Trailblazers to the Indiana Pacers, the Grizzlies improved to 27-24 and moved into 8th place in the Western Conference, good enough for a playoff birth if the season ended today.
It wasn’t as easy as many anticipated. Trying to avoid tying an NBA record with 23 consecutive single-season losses, the Cavs stayed with the Grizzlies for three quarters. The Grizzlies began by making their first 10 field-goal attempts, but you got the sense that with the offense humming so smoothly against such an ostensibly inferior opponent, that the Grizzlies got complacent at the defensive end — and three early fouls for Marc Gasol didn’t help. Even when making every shot, the Grizzlies couldn’t get more than 6 or 8 up on the Cavs, and when the offense bogged down with missed shots and turnovers, the Cavs kept going, holding a seven-point lead at halftime and going up by as many as 12 in the third quarter. The Grizzlies finally got serious, turning up their defense, focusing the offense more on Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph, and cutting the deficit to one at the end of the third quarter. The Grizzlies started the fourth quarter with a 13-0 run and essentially put it away.
Enjoy this playoff perch for a moment Griz fans, because a tough road game tomorrow night against the Houston Rockets could make it short-lived, especially since the team had to play Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph 45 and 44 minutes tonight, respectively.
But the Grizzlies head to Houston on a season-best five-game winning streak. And rather than go deep into the win over the Cavs, I’m going to instead highlight four individual-player trends that are helping drive the team’s current good play:
