The Lead: A couple of months ago, when Zach Randolph joined Darrell Arthur on the sidelines with a torn knee ligament and after an already unsteady 1-3 start, I and many other people I know around the Grizzlies set an unofficial goal for this team of working their way back to .500 by the All-Star break. But even this seemed to be a hopeful goal. In reality, merely playing .500 without Randolph — and hitting the break a couple of games under — seemed a satisfactory response. Instead, the Grizzlies won five of their last six games before the break to get to a lofty 19-15, going 18-12 without their All-NBA power forward.
Tuesday night at FedExForum, the Grizzlies were playing on the second night of a back-to-back and their fourth game in five nights, following a tough road loss in Houston on Monday. Waiting for them, with a day’s rest, were the Atlantic Division-leading Philadelphia 76ers.
For a while, it looked like another Groundhog Day game. The Grizzlies came out like rockets, using crisp offense and energetic defense to build a 30-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. Then, just like in both weekend home games against the Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors, the Grizzlies offense sputtered as the bench began to work its way in and then the opposition starting hitting three-pointers. With point guard Jrue Holiday leading the way with 13 points, including 3-3 from long range, the Sixers roared back, outscoring the Grizzlies 32-17 in the second quarter to draw to within five points at halftime.
But then the half came and no shadow was seen and the rest of the weekend script got tossed away, as the Grizzlies maintained their lead from buzzer to buzzer, never allowing the Sixers to work their deficit down to less than four.
Along the way, the Grizzlies used an interior advantage and solid team defense to hold the Sixers to 76 points on 37% shooting — this despite allowing 8-15 three-point shooting and forcing a relatively mundane — by the Grizzlies standards — 14 turnovers.
