- LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
- Dante Cunningham
The Lead: In their last game before their toughest stretch of the season, the Grizzlies got a win they really had to have, but it wasn’t easy.
Playing without Marc Gasol, who missed the game with a sprained ankle, the Grizzlies struggled on the defensive boards early, giving up seven offensive rebounds in the first quarter. With those rebounding problems exacerbated by a flurry of turnovers (nine in the first half), the Grizzlies were letting the Wolves beat them at their own game.
The Grizzlies held a tenuous three-point lead at the half, 44-41, but that fell apart in the third quarter when the Wolves, only 2-11 in the first half, started hitting threes. The Wolves shot 4-5 from three (two from Kevin Love) in about a two-and-a-half minute stretch in the quarter that turned a six-point Grizzlies lead into a six-point deficit.
Mixing lineups in the down the stretch, the Grizzlies got back into the game with a Tony Allen burst in the late third (back-to-back scores separated by one of those occasional defensive possessions where a peeved Allen just decides he’s going to steal the ball and then goes and does it), re-built a lead with O.J. Mayo scoring six straight on the ball to start the fourth, and then put the game away with frontcourt starters Marreese Speights and Dante Cunningham joining Allen for a wave of energy plays on both ends of the floor in the middle of the fourth quarter.
Man of the Match: With Gasol out and Lionel Hollins committed to bringing Zach Randolph off the bench for the time being, early-season acquisitions Cunningham and Speights started together up front and combined to give the team efficient scoring (14-20 shooting), strong rebounding (21 combined boards), and aggressive defense (6 blocks and 3 steals). But as strong as they were as a duo, the “Man of the Match” has to be Dante Cunningham, who played a season-high 40 minutes with a season-high 13 points, a career-high 14 rebounds, and a career-high-tying 4 blocks.
