Larry Kuzniewski
Vince Carter had 14 points and was 4-6 from 3 point range against the Knicks.
The Grizzlies went to New York Monday night and beat the Knicks, 103-82, even though it felt at times like they didn’t really want to, allowing the Knicks back in during the second quarter, only leading them by two points (50-48) at halftime and surrendering the lead only moments into the third.
This Grizzlies team isn’t exactly known for putting the hammer down on bad teams. If anything, they play much worse against bad teams than they do against good teams, going up double digits and deciding “this is fine” while not continuing to execute well enough to stay in the lead. For a while last night, it looked like that was going to be a factor again—like the Griz were going to go on the road and lose to another team that can’t even make the Eastern Conference playoffs.
And then they remembered that the Knicks are terrible.
After a 22-8 run to end the third quarter—a quarter in which the Knicks only scored 13 points despite taking a 51-50 lead very early in the proceedings—the Griz outscored the Knicks 29-21 in the final frame, and not a single Grizzlies player played 7 full minutes other than Kosta Koufos and Vince Carter, who both played 8 and change. By the time the Temps du Garbage lineup of Russ Smith, Jordan Adams, Jon Leuer, JaMychal Green, and Koufos was in, the writing was on the wall, the plane was already warming up, and several milestones were in sight.
The Big Picture
Last night the Grizzlies won a game against the Knicks, sure, but they also reached several important milestones, both for this season, for the franchise, and for their coach:
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Larry Kuzniewski
Last night was Dave Joerger’s 100th NBA win.
They won 50 games for the fourth time in franchise history.
- Dave Joerger secured his 100th victory as an NBA head coach. Joerger is the second fastest to 100 wins (153 games) among active coaches, eclipsed only by Chicago’s Tom Thibodeau (who did it in 130 games).
- They clinched a playoff spot.
I want to talk about that clinched spot for a minute. The Grizzlies have now been in Memphis for 14 seasons. They’ve now been to the playoffs in eight seasons and missed them in six. The playoff spot they clinched on Monday night is the fifth consecutive playoff appearance, something most Grizzlies fans probably felt was impossible, or the blackest of comedy to even discuss back in the dog days of 2008-09.
Before this run of playoff appearances, NBA observers openly questioned whether Memphis was a legitimate NBA market, whether the team would stay here more than ten years, whether they’d ever have any fans if they did. Whether they’d ever stop having to come to Memphis for basketball games, lamenting the fact that they couldn’t go to Seattle and Vancouver anymore.
Don’t get me wrong, those are great cities, and at least Seattle will probably have an NBA franchise again sooner rather than later, but starting with the 2011 upset of the Spurs in the first round, with every year, more people show up at the games, more people sell bootleg Grizzlies t-shirts all over town (some of which are just the coolest things I’ve ever seen and none of which are in any way sanctioned by anything close to being affiliated with the team). Memphis is ate up with Grizzlies fever.
The team’s success on the court (and off of it, too) has captivated this town and earned them a real fanbase, and it’s important to remember how crazy this run is even in the midst of it. Last night was a milestone night, even though compared to the goals the Grizzlies have for this season, it doesn’t mean much. Putting it in perspective, this is some amazing stuff we’re witnessing here. The creation of a legacy, a team that will be talked about forever by those of us who get to see them play.
Tweet of the Night
Not really a tweet, but a Vine, but either way, this is the Knicks’ season in a nutshell:
Up Next
This is probably the toughest three-game stretch of the regular season for the Grizzlies: Wednesday at home against LeBron James and the Cavaliers, Friday at home against the seemingly-omnipotent Golden State Warriors, and then Sunday night on the road in San Antonio against the Spurs. Three games in five days, all of them against good teams, all the while trying to widen a 2.5 game lead over the Houston Rockets for the Southwest division title.
If the Grizzlies hope to make the Finals, the Cavaliers are one of the few East teams they could see there. If they hope to make the Western Conference Finals, that path will almost certainly run through Golden State. If they’re not careful, they could end up seeing the Spurs as early as the first round, which would be, shall we say, less than optimal given that the Spurs have seemingly returned to form over the last few weeks.
It’s going to be a wild week, and a real test for these Grizzlies.
