- LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
- Marc Gasol had a massive weekend.
The Grizzlies failed to set a new franchise record for consecutive wins this weekend, their eight-game win streak coming to an end Friday night in Miami against the defending champion Heat. But the Grizzlies’ 1-1 Florida road trip was probably as encouraging as anything in the streak.
The Heat were winners of 12 in a row coming into Friday’s game, but the Grizzlies played them tight — neither team led by more than seven points — in their building, despite Zach Randolph turning an ankle on the opening play and being less than full strength the remainder of the game. It was a one-point game with 24 seconds to play when Lebron James hit a straightaway three to put the Heat up four and force the Grizzlies to foul. James’ free throws extended the final scoring margin. Up until that point, James had scored only 10 points on 3-13 shooting, Tayshaun Prince and the Grizzlies’ stellar team defense perhaps more effective against James than any team has been this season.
On the other end, the Grizzlies were able to rebound from their troubling recent offensive slide — it was their first game over 100 points per 100 possessions since before the All-Star break, per NBA.com — despite not generating many points off turnovers. The Heat’s lack of quality size had something to do with that, as Marc Gasol had one of his best all-around games of the season, going for 24-9-4 on 8-13 shooting. One wonders if the outcome might have been a little different if Gasol and Mike Conley had made it back into the game a little earlier in the fourth. (They each checked in at the 5:01 mark.) But it’s easy to second-guess and Gasol and Conley did play 36 and 34 minutes on the game.
