Larry Kuzniewski
Last night’s game was hard to watch right up until the moment that it wasn’t. The Grizzlies trailed Portland 68-79 with 5:45 to go when David Fizdale called his last timeout, and over those last few minutes, Marc Gasol–who ended up playing almost 35 minutes–absolutely took over, scoring 9 of the Grizzlies’ last 20 points by himself. Toney Douglas made clutch shots and plays down the stretch, and Troy Daniels, who’d struggled most of the game to find his shooting touch, made his only 3-pointer of the night from 30 feet out. Tony Allen contributed a layup and a stout enough defense to ruin the Blazers’ night.
The Grizzlies’ run of victories without Mike Conley is true to form, but that doesn’t mean it was expected, or even likely. I’ve decided to commemorate their 5-game win streak with 5 haiku about last night.
1.
The temperature dropped
Troy Daniels frozen from three
He thawed in crunch time.
2.
They’ll lose a game. But:
It doesn’t feel like that now.
Now they mock defeat.
Larry Kuzniewski
3.
Gasol seems Pyrrhic.
Like Sisyphus, but he plays
Thirty five minutes.
4.
I should know by now.
When cornered, the fearsome bears,
They just fight harder.
5.
Last year they’d have lost.
They’re free now, they trust their coach,
And now Marc takes threes.
