The Lead: With fewer than four minutes left in the third quarter, the Grizzlies had never trailed and had held the league’s top-ranked offense to a paltry 44 points on something like 35% shooting. But the Grizzlies offense was sputtering — they were working on a 14-point quarter and shooting in the 30s themselves — and you got the sense that if the Grizzlies didn’t find a better offensive flow then Kevin Durant was going to manufacture enough points to win it.
And that’s what it started to look like. In scoring 17 straight points for the Thunder from the mid-third into the early fourth, Durant brought his team from nine down at one point to taking their first lead. When the Thunder later pulled up by six with 1:26 to play in regulation on a three-pointer from sixth man Kevin Martin, it looked like they were on the verge of completing the comeback.
Instead it became of battle of big plays, and the Grizzlies made more. Mike Conley — as he had for most of the night — manufactured some points of his own to get it down to a single-possession game and 15 seconds to play. With Russell Westbrook splitting a pair of free throws, the Grizzlies, down three, ran a familiar play that almost never works: An in-bounds lob to the rim. But this time Jerryd Bayless caught the pass and drew contact, just missing a three-point play. A possession later, Bayless was fouled on a baseline drive. With Bayless and Westbrook alternating four straight perfect trips to the line, the game remained a three and the Grizzlies were forced to take a long-range shot. A chaotic possession resulted in a Bayless pump-fake and straightaway dagger to force overtime. Amid all the madness, credit Lionel Hollins for superb late-game management at the end of regulation.
In the final period, Marc Gasol, who had been quiet for much of the night, made decisive plays. His running hook over Kendrick Perkins gave the team a three-point lead. Then the Thunder’s stars answered: Durant with a floater and Russell Westbrook with a circus finish in front of the rim. With the Grizzlies down one and the shot-clock off, the Grizzlies went — as they had for much of the game — to Zach Randolph on the right block, even though Nick Collison was guarding him and well and Randolph wasn’t getting calls. Randolph missed a seven-footer, but Gasol reached up to tap it home with under a second to play and ran down the floor raising his fist and howling as time expired.
“Shit,” what can you say?
