The Grizzlies enjoyed one of their best wins of the season last night, returning to “the birthplace of grit and grind,” as Pete Pranica put it before the tip, to end the conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder’s six-game winning streak despite the absence of Mike Conley and Dante Cunningham and subpar games from Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph.
Of course, this happened on a Monday night, right in the middle of our Monday-Tuesday production cycle at the Flyer, so I wasn’t able to get into the game until I was done with print deadlines. But I want to get a few rambling observations down before the team takes the court again tonight, at home against the reeling Golden State Warriors. (Reminder: We’re giving away two tickets to the game. Enter here. Drawing at 3 p.m.)
The Season Series/The State of Things: The Grizzlies went 1-3 against the Thunder in this season’s series after pushing them to seven games in last spring’s playoffs. If that feels like regression, consider this: All four games came down to the final couple of minutes, with the Grizzlies playing without Zach Randolph in two games and without Mike Conley in the other two, while the Thunder have been relatively whole.
