Larry Kuzniewski
Jeff Green apparently went to the coach and suggested that he should come off the bench. WHich says quite a bit about Jeff Green.
The Grizzlies came out and played like, well, the Grizzlies on Friday night in Dallas, and they came out winners because of it. Tony Allen made his grand reappearance in the starting lineup after Jeff Green (according to his postgame interview) went to head coach Dave Joerger and asked to be moved to the bench if it would help the team. Marc Gasol had a double double (15 and 10). Mike Conley returned to action and had 14 points, including 2 threes. Vince Carter was 3 of 7 from three (.429 3PT% if you’re keeping track) and every one of them felt like a game-altering bomb.
It can’t be denied that Tony Allen’s pairing with Courtney Lee was a boost to the Grizzlies’ perimeter defense, of course. Lee did an excellent job of shutting down Monta Ellis (who ended the night with 12 points on 3 of 9 shooting, only 2 points of which came in the first half), even at the expense of his own offensive game. Lee was used in two wing combinations—with Tony Allen and with Vince Carter with Jeff Green at the power forward spot—that we haven’t seen much this year, but I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more and more as the playoffs approach and Joerger starts to tinker with his lineups to determine what his best postseason approach will be.
It was a resounding win, with Dallas getting down 20 in the third quarter and at points threatening to completely lose their composure. Amare Stoudamire, playing in a bench role for the Mavs in what has to be the twilight of his career by this point, got tossed in one of the dumber ejections I’ve seen—both dumb because he shouldn’t have been called for the foul on the Tony Allen flop in the first place, and dumb because there was no reason things should’ve escalated to the point they did:
When your little bro (whom you could easily overpower) ‘holds you back’ https://t.co/37xftLFDDJ
— MattyP (@grizzlam) March 21, 2015
One assumes Stoudamire will be receiving some sort of fine from the league for acting like he was about to Hulk out and slug Scott Foster for slapping him with that second technical.
At any rate, it wasn’t perfect, but it was a Grizzlies win in which they looked and played like themselves, which is something we haven’t seen from them in far too long. Given that Grizzlies/Mavs might end up being a first round series, it was good to see the Griz able to assert their will on the floor in Dallas, limiting Dirk Nowitzki’s effectiveness and keeping Rick Carlisle—who clearly had a game plan in place for Friday night’s game, albeit one that didn’t work—from being able to outsmart them. If they can play more like this, and look more like this, the Grizzlies will be in good shape from here through the rest of the season, and we can just forget that bad loss at Detroit ever happened.
Game Notes
I’ll keep these brief since there’s another game coming tonight and ain’t nobody got time to read War and Peace during a back-to-back:
➭ There’s definitely a marked increase in intensity Tony Allen is in with the starters, but only one game into this iteration of the rotation, it’s hard to tell how much of that is correlation and how much is causation. There were definitely other variables in play last night: the frustration the whole team felt after the Detroit game, a game on the road against an important opponent and possible playoff preview, the return of Mike Conley from injury. But it’s hard to argue with the results, and as Tony Allen presumably starts more games over the next couple of weeks it’ll be interesting to see whether the team plays at this sort of elevated level the whole time, or if TA-as-starter helps but doesn’t quite get them over the top.
➭ Speaking of Mike Conley returning from injury, Mike Conley returned from injury! He was clearly a little rusty—he had a hard time getting his floaters to hit in the first half, choosing instead to sink some 3-pointers—but his presence made a huge difference in the way the Grizzlies played. That’s no slight to Beno Udrih and Nick Calathes (the latter of whom didn’t even see the floor in Dallas), but Conley’s always been one of the main drivers of everything the Grizzlies do. Having him back, even if he’s not 100%, is huge for the Grizzlies’ success over the rest of the regular season.
➭ This Vince Carter, the one who can shoot 42% from 3 and hit them all at what seems like a critical juncture in the game, matters. This is the Vince Carter who played for Dallas last year, and this is the Vince Carter that the Grizzlies signed. Carter’s shooting motion looks so much more fluid than it did earlier—it looks like he’s comfortable, like he’s using his whole body to shoot instead of chucking the ball at the rim in a flail—and I don’t know that that is the whole difference in his effectiveness, but it can’t hurt to have him shooting more comfortably. He also unleashed a pretty nasty dunk after the buzzer on the Mavs basket at one point in the third, something I assume he wouldn’t have done if he weren’t feeling good. This is the time of year the Grizzlies wanted Carter for to begin with. For him to be rounding into form is a big deal, with implications for how far into the playoffs the Grizzlies can go.
Tweet of the Night
SBNation’s Mike Prada pointing out the underrated offensive prowess of Tony Allen:
Tony Allen is sneaking into every gap in Dallas’ defense. Suddenly, Memphis’ offense makes sense again.
— Mike Prada (@MikePradaSBN) March 21, 2015
Up Next
Tonight at home against the Portland Trail Blazers, who are also on the second night of a back to back after losing to the Orlando Magic (yes, really) last night. Portland hasn’t missed a beat since Wes Matthews went down for the season, mostly because Nic Batum has started playing like Nic Batum, something he wasn’t close to doing for the first two thirds of the season. Tonight’s game has implications for the playoff race if the Grizzlies were to lose their spot atop the Southwest division, so it’s an important win to get.
