The saying goes, “It’s not how you start that’s important, but how you finish.”
On Friday night, the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves, 114-106, in the Game 6 elimination game. Memphis won 4-2, despite a lackluster performance in most of the games.
The Grizzlies will face the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference semifinals after advancing.
The team’s ability to prevail in this series is incredible; the tenacity they displayed in the face of enormous odds is truly remarkable.
With the exception of one game, Memphis trailed the Timberwolves by double digits before rallying in the final minutes to claim three of the series’ four wins.
That’s unbelievable, to say the least. In those victories, the Grizzlies appeared to cruise through the first three quarters and then demoralized the Wolves in the fourth quarter. It was go time.
In their final three wins, Memphis won the fourth quarters 37-12, 37-24, and 40-22.
For most of the series, the Timberwolves held a lead for more minutes but Memphis outscored them by a total of 62 points in five fourth quarters.
Resiliency
Taylor Jenkins spoke about the team’s resiliency and poise after the victory.
Dillon Brooks, who finished with 23 points while connecting on 5-of-6 three pointers, said, “We always try to fight and always have confidence in each other. And that’s why we’re able to pull out the game.
“I wish we got better starts so we don’t have to put ourselves in that predicament,” Brooks added. “But we are always gonna find a way to fight and like coach [Jenkins] said in the locker room — there’s not one way to win in the NBA Playoffs. There’s a lot of ways to win, and we just figured out one way.”
Ja Morant had a walk-off interview with ESPN’s Malika Andrews. “It’s big-time for us man, super excited,” Morant said about the series win. “We got it done. It was ugly but we battled through, battled back, and got the win. We got the four wins, but we’ve got to be better in the next round — we can’t come out again like we did in this series.”
“Tired physically, mentally — this series was a battle,” said a visibly exhausted Morant while speaking in the postgame presser. “Coming in we knew, with this team, that we weren’t winning the series in one game. We knew that every game would be a dogfight. And that we had to come in locked in and bring our energy from the start. Obviously, the wins were pretty ugly outside of Game 2, but we got it done.”
Morant continued, “That’s all we can worry about now. We enjoyed our moment, our celebration but it’s time to turn the page.”
The Murray State standout tallied 17 points, 11 assists, and eight rebounds in the elimination game.
“I feel like we’re always confident, no matter what the score is,” the All-Star guard said about the fourth quarter comebacks. “We treat it as pretty much zero-zero.”
He went on to say, “We try to win the quarter and late in this series, the last couple of games since after Game 2, we were down double digits plenty of times and came back and won. So going into this one we had our same message, continue to stay together, play together, and we know the game is not over until you notice zeros hit at the end of the fourth quarter. We just got stops and some shots on the other hand that allowed us to win the game.”
Desmond Bane responded, “Same thing we’ve been doing all year — next man up, playing well, not playing well. We stick together, stay on the same page, and I think it really showed on the big stage, this series.”
Bane scored 23 points and grabbed rebounds while connecting on 5 of 8 three-point shots. He finished the series with 27 made three-pointers, the most in Grizzlies postseason history.
The second-year guard led the Grizzlies in the series with 23.6 points per game on a true shooting percentage of 66.6 and 46.8 percent from beyond the arc.
Breakout Game for JJJ
Jaren Jackson Jr.’s availability was limited for most of the series due to foul trouble. It’s worth noting that he played for more than 34 minutes in the elimination game. He ended up with 18 points as well as 14 boards (season-high), three triples, and two blocked shots.
Jackson spoke to Grizzlies sideline reporter Rob Fischer after the game:
“Yeah, it’s a good feeling being up,” said Jackson after the victory. “Still not satisfied. We’ve got to keep taking the good and bad with each game. Even when you don’t do what you’re supposed to do, you gotta have the same approach, like even when it’s a good game, you gotta just learn from it.”
An emotional Jackson shared a moment with his father, Jaren Jackson Sr.:
Brandon Clarke Delivers Again
Brandon Clarke had 17 points, 11 rebounds to go along with five assists and three blocks in the series finale. Clarke averaged 10.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in the regular season to 16.5 points and 9.0 in the postseason. In addition to his five offensive boards on Friday, he had totaled 23 rebounds on the offensive end of the floor.
The Gonzaga alum is a big reason the Grizzlies are advancing to the second round.
Clarke also was instrumental in icing the game that led to a dunk from Jackson with 36 seconds left on the clock.
“His energy and activity were phenomenal,” coach Jenkins said. “We don’t win the series without what he did. … The boost he gives us off the bench, he runs the floor, he’s just ‘Johnny on the spot’ wherever the ball is, a loose ball, an offensive rebound, a tap-out. His teammates have a lot of trust in him when he’s picking and rolling. … And defensively taking a lot of tough assignments — switching on the guards, guarding Towns for a good portion of the series.”
Jenkins said Clarke elevated his game and made a huge statement in the first round series.
Next Up
No rest for the weary. The Grizzlies have less than one day to prepare for the Warriors in the second round.
Schedule – All times are central.
Game 1
Sunday, May 1 in Memphis @ 2:30 p.m. on ABC
Game 2
Tuesday, May 3 in Memphis @ 8:30 p.m. on TNT
Game 3
Saturday, May 7 in San Francisco @ 7:30 p.m. on ABC
Game 4
Monday, May 9 in San Francisco @ 9 p.m. on TNT
Game 5, (if necessary) Wednesday, May 11 in Memphis – time and broadcast TBD
Game 6, (if necessary) Friday, May 13 in San Francisco – start time and broadcast TBD
Game 7, (if necessary) Monday, May 16 in Memphis – start time and broadcast TBD
