This three-pointer is going to be a little different as the time between Saturday night’s loss to the Bucks and this afternoon I was too busy with family stuff and Flyer deadlines to do any blogging, so instead I’ll look back at the two games from this past weekend and look ahead to the game tonight. Briefly:
1. Grizzlies 102, 76ers 97: This was the best game of the season so far for the Grizzlies and the first road win, but what was most memorable about it is that it may be the best game Rudy Gay’s ever played. Gay scored 33 points on 14-22 shooting, which is not surprising. What is surprising is that despite this scoring eruption, Gay’s most memorable moments were generally not the points he generated: Aside from his clutch jumper to seal the game late, Gay’s highlights were an explosive block at the rim on a Lou Williams drive, tracking down an overthrown outlet and whipping a behind-the-back bounce pass to set up an O.J. Mayo lay-up, and, most impressively, hustling back after a Grizzlies turnover to stop a Sixers’ break with a steal. These kinds of plays aren’t exactly unprecedented for Gay, but we rarely see him string them together. And while he was lighting up the scoreboard, his man wasn’t, as the Sixers wings did little damage.
This game is a standout, but it’s more meaningful as part of a recent pattern of better effort, better focus, and more diversity from Gay, who has notched double-digit rebounds in each of his past two games and whose 13 assists over his past four games are one more than he had in the previous nine games. Is he still forcing some tough, mid-range jump shots? Yes. But though Gay’s game still needs fewer of those generally low-percentage looks, he’s also making quite a few of them. Making tough shots is something elite scorers do, and Gay may well have it in him to earn that designation.
