Larry Kuzniewski
The last seven minutes of last night’s buzzer-beater win over the resurgent Sacramento Kings almost erase everything that came before them. A Vince Carter 3-pointer from 26 feet out started to tip the momentum in the Grizzlies’ favor, and the Kings, who gave up a similar big come-from-behind win to the Mavericks on Tuesday night, started to tighten up and play nervous.
Up until that three, with 7:11 left in the fourth quarter, there wasn’t much that happened in last night’s game that is even worth talking about. Dave Joerger started Tony Allen and Tayshaun Prince at the wing spots, presumably so Prince could “guard” Rudy Gay, and while Prince was letting Gay get runouts for easy dunks, Allen was helping off Ben McLemore, who hit two threes as a result. The team came out looking disinterested and the Kings punished them for it, going on an absolute tear in what ended up being a 38–16 first quarter. Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins combined for 25—9 more than the 10 Grizzlies who played in the first.
After the disastrous start, things tightened up considerably. The Grizzlies outscored the Kings in each of the next three quarters, slowly reeling them back in. At times in the third, it seemed like Sacramento’s 20-point lead was insurmountable, with the two teams going bucket-for-bucket and the starters (the real starters, meaning Courtney Lee too) not gaining much ground. Joerger seemed determined to let the starters win or lose the second half, even though Kosta Koufos played some great minutes in the second quarter, including some defense that probably kept the game from getting out of reach.
When momentum shifts in a basketball game, sometimes it’s more of an avalanche, and that’s what happened to the Kings down the stretch of last night’s game. The Grizzlies got big buckets from Vince Carter (who basically schooled Rudy Gay on both ends of the court and also actually did some running, which was a nice change), Mike Conley got called for the first technical foul he’s ever gotten in his life (or at least that’s what his dad told Rob Fischer), and Dave Joerger started to show Grizzlies fans some of the tricks up his sleeves. The Griz ran a Spurs-ish play to get a wide-open 3 from Carter. They ran the “elevator doors” screen play to get Conley open for a 3. And, most importantly, they ran a brilliant play to get Courtney Lee wide open directly next to the rim with .3 seconds on the clock after some missed free throws from the Kings.
The play started out with Courtney Lee screening for Marc Gasol like Gasol was the intended target of Vince Carter’s lob inbounds pass, but then Gasol started screening for Lee, the Kings got a little confused, and Lee ended up this open:
(That image is from Mike Prada’s excellent breakdown of the final play of the game over at SB Nation, which you should go read immediately.)
And, once Lee was that open, this is what happened, thanks to Vince Carter’s perfectly-placed inbounds pass:
Lee missed an almost identical shot during the 2009 Finals between the Magic and Lakers. He didn’t miss this one.
Larry Kuzniewski
This was probably an interesting conversation.
I’m going to ditch the usual “three things I liked” stuff because there wasn’t much to like in this game until the latter part of the fourth quarter. The Grizzlies were well on their way to getting run out of their own building by a hungry young team looking to make their mark. It took an unnerving combination of great play and playcalling from the Grizzlies and lapses by the Kings to get them to 8–1. Marc Gasol continued to look like last year’s model, getting eaten alive down low by DeMarcus Cousins. Tayshaun Prince can’t guard Rudy Gay anymore and Dave Joerger just had to learn that the hard way. Allen and Carter both did a much better job on Gay. Courtney Lee should never not start again, as far as I’m concerned. He’s been the Grizzlies’ best offensive player (with the exception of maybe Conley) for almost the whole season to this point, and his defense of Ben McLemore after Allen wouldn’t stay home on him was excellent last night.
I don’t know what it is about this group of Grizzlies that they always have games like this. In any stretch of ten games, there are one or two where they just don’t have it together, where the effort is flat (especially defensively) and where execution lags. Maybe that’s just how it is when there are 82 games. In the past, though, the Griz haven’t always been able to kick it into gear at the right time to win the game. They get down 20 and they stay down, or never get past ten. Or they start their furious run just too late to make a difference.
For whatever it’s worth, this year’s team seems to be able to make up that ground in a way that last year’s couldn’t. One hopes they won’t have to use that ability too often going forward, but in games like the one they played last night, knowing how to win goes a long way.
Tweet of the Night
Two winners, one from the Bad Quarters:
Vintage Tony Allen. https://t.co/xbUk0Fw3ma
— Matt Hrdlicka (@theRealHrdlicka) November 14, 2014
And one from the Good Quarter:
“Why are you just standing there holding the ball, Marc?” “I’m waiting for Zach to throw these two guys out of the way.”
— Chris Herrington (@HerringtonNBA) November 14, 2014
And an honorable mention for Dan Devine because “Tennessee Dirk” is maybe the best thing I’ve ever heard.
No worries, Grizz. Just go to Jon Leuer, a.k.a. “Tennessee Dirk,” and you’ll be right back in this thing.
— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) November 14, 2014
Up Next
Saturday night: the Pistons, and who knows how that’s going to go, and then Monday night another home game against the Houston Rockets.
