Experimenting with a new game-blog style though, like Hasheem Thabeet, it’s still developing:
The Lead: Despite a big assist from Tony Parker’s Fourth Right Metacarpal, Bizarro World continued for the Grizzlies Saturday night at FedExForum, where a 102-92 loss to the Spurs was the team’s eighth straight home loss, the longest home losing streak since the team moved to Memphis in 2001. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies have won six straight on the road, making the Grizzlies the only team in NBA history to simultaneously have six-plus home losses and six-plus road wins. Has a team ever set a franchise record for consecutive road wins while falling out of a playoff race? And the loss tonight was despite the Spurs playing without starting point guard Tony Parker in the second half, who was diagnosed with a fractured ring finger at halftime and did not return. In the first half, in which the Spurs built a 58-48 lead, Parker’s penetration was the engine for the Spurs offense, scoring 8 points on 4-7 shooting and collapsing the defense to set up Spurs shooters, registering four assists.
I don’t have much of an explanation for this strange home loss/road win streak, especially with the Grizzlies suddenly winning the second night of back-to-backs regularly. But the quality of opposition certainly has something to do with it. All of the teams the Grizzlies have lost to in this home streak are either playoff locks or contenders. The teams the Grizzlies have beat in the road streak have been half lottery teams and half team around .500.
Game Ball: I’ll give Marc Gasol the edge over O.J. Mayo (a game-high 23 points) here. Gasol, with 17 points (7-10 shooting), 13 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals had a more well-rounded game while dealing with tougher match-ups at both ends of the floor. Gasol generally defended Tim Duncan (17 points on 6-14 shooting) well. In the third quarter, when the Grizzlies were making a run, Gasol forced Duncan into consecutive turnovers, one a lost ball, the other a bad pass. Down the stretch, in what turned out to be a back-breaking possession for the Grizzlies, Gasol defended Duncan well for a full 24 seconds, forcing Duncan into a miss at the buzzer, only to have Duncan get an offensive rebound, putback, and foul. And in a disappointing loss, Gasol gets bonus points for the most entertaining Grizzlies play of the night, a first-quarter steal that lead to an unlikely, rumbling coast-to-coast (not-so-) fastbreak dunk.
