Tag: Lakers

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Deflections: Playoff Race, Game Recap/Preview, Postseason Awards

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Quickish hits on a handful of notable Griz topics:

The Grizzlies are still trying to shoot past the Nuggets in the race for the three seed.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • The Grizzlies are still trying to shoot past the Nuggets in the race for the three seed.

The Playoff Race: To the disappointment of Grizzlies fans everywhere, the Denver Nuggets’ near-indestructible homecourt advantage held last night against the Dallas Mavericks, despite the Mavericks leading for most of the fourth quarter. Big defensive plays from Corey Brewer and a game-winning drive with two seconds left from Andre Iguodala secured the win for Denver and denied the Grizzlies a chance to control their destiny in pursuit of the third seed.

Current projections now have a one-game gap between all three teams, with Denver finishing at 56, Memphis at 55, and the Clippers at 54 wins. That would make the Grizzlies technically a fifth seed, but with homecourt advantage over the Clippers in a first-round series. The tough thing for the Grizzlies is they have to be a game better than the Nuggets due to tiebreakers, and are now a half-game back with only seven to go. That’s an increasingly thin margin of error.

Those projections don’t, however, take into account the knee injury to Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari last night. While Nuggets fans worriedly await medical tests today, most assume the injury will sideline Gallinari for the remainder of the season. Any other outcome would be a surprise. Gallinari is the team’s second-leading scorer. They’re already playing without top scorer Ty Lawson, who has a tear in the plantar fascia in his right heel, but is expected to be back for the playoffs, if not before.

The Nuggets are probably deeper and less dependent on individual players than any team in the league, but this double blow is a pretty severe one. Could it knock them off their game enough to allow the Grizzlies to sneak through to the #3?

Here are the remaining schedules for all three teams in the 3-4-5 race:

Grizzlies (51-24):
at Lakers
at Kings
Bobcats
at Rockets
Clippers (b2b)
at Mavericks
Jazz

Clippers (50-26):
Lakers
Wolves
at Hornets
at Grizzlies (b2b)
Blazers
at Kings

Nuggets (52-24):
Rockets
Spurs
at Mavericks
Blazers
at Bucks
Suns

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Postgame Notebook: Grizzlies 106, Lakers 93 — Lakers Continue Death Spiral, Griz Find Some Life

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

The Grizzlies pushed the Lakers around.

The Lead: This game began with both teams in a very fragile state and ended with one in an even bigger world of hurt and the other maybe — just maybe — finding out a few things.

The Lakers began their day in Memphis with an Airing of Grievances, but were not able to follow it up with any Feats of Strength. Instead, their day just kept getting worse:

Dwight Howard had two rebounds and zero made field goals through 14 first-half minutes before grabbing his shoulder and asking to leave the game. He didn’t return.

Steve Nash impersonated a traffic cone on defense while shooting 2-6 with six turnovers.

Kobe Bryant went into Kobe Hero mode, which worked for awhile. Five minutes into the third quarter, Bryant had scored 24 points on 11-15 shooting, with three consecutive makes early in the quarter cutting what had been a 15-point Grizzlies lead down to only three. Bryant then went 0-8 the rest of the game and with the makeshift bandages he was applying to the team’s offense unraveling, the Lakers completely fell apart, the Grizzlies going on a 30-14 run between the late third and early fourth quarter to blow the game open. (An 11-3 Lakers garbage-time run made the game look closer than it really was.)

As for the Grizzlies, the 106 points were the most the team’s scored since January 7th in Sacramento. In both cases, you have to consider the defensive quality of the opponent — per Pau Gasol: “We make these teams look a lot better offensively than they really are” — but for a team that’s been struggling to even hit 85, the outburst served to relieve some pressure. They did this scoring at least 23 points in every quarter, without doing much from outside (4-13 from three), and despite terrible, turnover-riddled starts to each half.

It was the Grizzlies first game since the trade that sent away two rotation players, and Lionel Hollins had only 10 active players at his disposal. If an opponent in a death spiral had a lot to do with the Grizzlies success, part of it probably had to do with a collective — and potentially short-term — reaction to the theoretical adversity of the trade. Coming together. Playing with a chip on their shoulder. Having something to prove. Pick your cliché.

But I also feel like this performance suggests a few things for the now newish-look Grizzlies.

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Beyond the Arc Sports

Postgame Notebook: Grizzlies 106, Lakers 98 — Timberlake Takes in a Laker Loss

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

New minority owner Justin Timberlake (with Jessica Biel to his left) made the scene courtside to see the Grizzlies beat the Lakers.

  • LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
  • New minority owner Justin Timberlake (with Jessica Biel to his left) made the scene courtside to see the Grizzlies beat the Lakers.

The Lead: The Grizzlies overcame erratic bench play and prolific Lakers three-point shooting for an impressive victory that put the team back atop league-wide standings at 9-2.

After taking a 9-8 lead about three-and-a-half minutes into the game with a step-back three-pointer from Rudy Gay, the Grizzlies never again trailed. Memphis took a 16-point lead into the second quarter, but the Lakers went on a 15-2 run, led by three-pointers from Antawn Jamison, Chris Duhon, and Metta World Peace. The Lakers cut another 16-point Grizzlies lead down to 5 midway through the fourth quarter off back-to-back Kobe Bryant three-pointers, but with Bryant trying to take over the game, Tony Allen tightened up his defense and forced Bryant into bad long-range misses on the next two possessions to hold the lead. In the final two minutes, Mike Conley calmly sunk a step-back 16 footer and then a pull-up 20-footer to seal it.

To a man, the Grizzlies’ starters played about as well as a unit as we’ve seen, with Allen and Quincy Pondexter tag-teaming to keep a quality defender on Bryant for most of the game.

In roughly 27 minutes of game time in which the Grizzlies paired their “core four” — Conley, Rudy Gay, Zach Randolph, and Marc Gasol — with either Allen or Pondexter, the Grizzlies outscored the Lakers 65-45. In the 21 minutes in which one of the other reserves was on the floor, the Lakers outscored the Grizzlies 53-41.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Game 11 Preview: Grizzlies vs. Lakers

CREDIT: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Darrell Arthur is set to make his return tonight.

A big one tonight at FedExForum as the new-look Lakers, in their third game under new head coach Mike D’Antoni, face a Grizzlies team coming off a three-game Thanksgiving break. Hopefully, unlike myself, the home team won’t be plagued by a sluggish turkey-and-dressing hangover tonight.

Three things I’m thinking about in advance of Grizzlies-Lakers:

1. Doppelganger Lineups: In a league going smaller, the Grizzlies and the Lakers are the two contenders most reliant on traditional, post-oriented lineups. But the similarity in the starting lineup construction of these two teams is even more profound than that:

Pure Point Guard — Steve Nash vs. Mike Conley
Big, Dynamic Wing Scorer — Kobe Bryant vs. Rudy Gay
Crazy, Colorful Wing Defender — Metta World Peace vs. Tony Allen
Rebounding Machine — Dwight Howard vs. Zach Randolph
Post Playmaking Seven-Footer Named Gasol — Pau Gasol vs. Marc Gasol

The match-ups in this one will be fascinating. Marc Gasol trying to neutralize Howard in the battle of the league’s two best true centers. Or Marc matching up with big brother Pau, which we might see some, especially if Howard is out of the game. Randolph and Pau, who have very different games but are, arguably, the Two Greatest Grizzlies. The cross matches on the wing, where Tony Allen guarding Kobe Bryant is reason enough to be in the building and Rudy Gay responding to the brute physicality of World Peace (these jokes will never get old) could be a key to the game.

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News

Lakers Stifle Grizzlies, 93-84

The world champion Lakers came to Memphis and gave the Grizzlies a lesson in forth-quarter defense. Chris Herrington has details and analysis.