- LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
- Rudy Gay
Road Recap: Grizzlies 94, Warriors 87: The Grizzlies completed a sweep of their three-game West Coast road in Oakland last night in what might be one of their better wins this season. Against a Warriors team that looks increasingly legitimate, the Grizzlies used good offense in the first half to build a lead and then overcame a rough third quarter for a major “grit-and-grind” effort down the stretch, scoring off turnovers and offensive rebounds hold on for the win. Lots of players made big plays late, with Jerryd Bayless’ break-starting block and Rudy Gay’s long corner jumper in the final two minutes standing out.
The win gave the Grizzlies a game-and-a-half lead over the Warriors for the fourth seed in the West and, more importantly, secured a tiebreaker over the Warriors on the season, making it a de facto 2.5 game lead.
The sweep was also impressive, even if previous opponents Sacramento and Phoenix aren’t very good. That hasn’t really mattered much for the Grizzlies. Over the past three-plus seasons, in which the Grizzlies have an overall winning record, they’d gone 15-29 on West Coast road trips (three games or more) only notching a winning records (2-1 each time) twice.
Rudy Trade Chatter: Trade chatter about Rudy Gay continues. I’ve got a column in this week’s paper on the subject, which you can read here. One thing I probably haven’t underscored enough in the two pieces I’ve written recently: I’m not campaigning for the team to trade Gay. I believe it’s become inevitable, though, with the only questions being when (this season or this summer) and for what, so I’ve moved on to those two questions. And while I’ve made the case that I think it’s possible to deal Gay this season and maintain the overall quality of the team — depending on the deal, obviously — I would also be perfectly happy to see the team stand pat and work on their roster/payroll issues this summer.
