Larry Kuzniewski
The Man, the Myth, the Calathes.
Last night’s 100-90 Grizzlies win over the Jazz in Salt Lake City was both eventful and uneventful, which is typical of these mid-week February road games. You’re excited to be watching basketball, and then you remember that just about everybody on the court just wants to make it to the All-Star break so they can have a week off and recharge, and you remember that it’s a Wednesday, and so you feel the same way about the weekend.
On the one hand, it was a grind-it-out road victory over a team that is young and still developing (and for some reason starting Dante Exum instead of Trey Burke even though at this point in time Burke is a superior player.)
On the other hand, it was a masterful defensive performance in spots, and a shining example of just how good the Kosta Koufos/Nick Calathes pairing can be when they’re firing on all cylinders (and, of course, the budding Calathes/Tony Allen/Koufos trio that is a nightmare of turnover generation for opponents), and a showcase for the two-point-guard sets that have been proliferating this year with the ascension of both Beno Udrih and Nick Calathes to solid backup roles.
Anyways, here are some haiku. Some of these are assisted by the excellent Vine work of @BenTBrown.
1.
Jeff Green dunks and dunks
Like no Griz has in a while
(Never forget Stro).
2.
From Greece comes a new
Lord of Basketball Chaos:
Nick, who swipes and steals.
3.
O Gordon Hayward,
I still can’t believe that you’re
good at basketball.
4.
A suprise attack,
An unexpected ambush:
Tony off the bench.
5.
Z-Bo rails against
the finite nature of time:
Sixty-foot basket.
Tweet of the Night
No comment necessary, assuming you watched the Super Bowl and its accompanying maudlin Dad-ads:
‘Hammer nail coffin. This baby’s over.’ – Pete paraphrasing that awful nationwide commercial
— Grizzlam (@grizzlam) February 5, 2015
Up Next
On the road against the Timberwolves, who actually have some of their injured players back now. On the plus side, it’s not at altitude like Salt Lake City is. On the down side, it’s in Minnesota in February, and someone might freeze to death walking from the bus to the locker room if an exterior door is left open.
