Not being in Los Angeles for the opening two games of this first-round playoff series between the Grizzlies and Clippers and with only a one-day break in-between the first two games, I can’t find much reason to separate a reaction to Game 1 and a preview of Game 2. So, I’ll let this scattershot series of observations stand in for both:
Coming into the series, the Clippers already owned discernible advantages in terms of athleticism, depth, and shooting, and they pressed all three last night in Los Angeles until the Grizzlies finally broke, yielding a 112-91 defeat to a Clippers team that has now beaten them in five of the past six meetings between the two teams.
In theory, the Grizzlies should be able to mitigate the Clippers’ roster advantages with the league’s best perimeter defense, the league’s second-best rebounding team, and, arguably, the front-court tandem that boasts the league’s best mix of skill and brawn.
Instead, Clippers guards and small forwards shot 62%, including 39% from three-point range. The Grizzlies got demolished on the boards, where the Grizzlies were doubled-up (47-23) and allowed the Clippers to corral 42% of their own misses. The Grizzlies offensive rebound rate of 31.0 was second best in the NBA in the regular season. In Game 1, they secured barely more than 10 percent of their misses. As for the third component, Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph weren’t terrible offensively — 29 points on 10-22 shooting, with 8 assists — but it wasn’t nearly enough. And they combined for a shocking six rebounds in 45 minutes of play.
The 21-point final deficit is in some ways misleading and in other ways a more honest expression of the game than the tighter differential that separated these teams for most of the contest.
