Dex
02-07-2012, 01:48 PM
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/feb/06/grizzlies-rally-falls-shot-against-spurs/
Grizzlies' rally falls short against San Antonio Spurs
* By Ronald Tillery
* Memphis Commercial Appeal
When Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins called for a time-out early in the third quarter his team was sputtering and the game appeared to be teetering out of control.
But that’s also when the Griz found a second gear.
Memphis used a surge in defensive energy and sharper offense to cut down a double-digit deficit. But the Grizzlies’ comeback attempt stalled Monday night in the final three minutes of an 89-84 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in FedExForum.
The Griz missed eight of their final nine shots, including a Rudy Gay 3-pointer that could have tied the score with 8.9 seconds left. In losing their third straight and for the seventh time in nine games, the Griz missed 20 of 25 field goals in the final period and shot 37 percent for the game.
“It was a close game,” Hollins said. “We just couldn’t get the stops and when we got the ball, we just couldn’t finish on the offensive end.”
Gay missed two layups and Gasol had a point-blank attempt blocked during the Grizzlies’ cold spell. The drought began after an O.J. Mayo’s short jump shot cut the Spurs’ lead to 82-81 with 3:15 left.
From there, a Mike Conley 3-pointer with 1:10 remaining served as the Grizzlies’ lone field goal the rest of the game. A visibly drained Hollins took the blame for his key players lacking energy at the end. Hollins vowed to trust his bench for longer stretches in order to give starters proper rest.
Gay, Gasol and Conley each logged 40 minutes or more.
“We were a step slow. But you want to win. You want to compete. You’re not thinking about being tired,” said Gay, who finished with 18 points but missed 11 of his final 13 shots after starting out 7 of 13 from the field.
Still, the Grizzlies’ last lead was 77-76 despite trailing by 13 points in the third. They were ahead by six when the fourth quarter began.
“They made a great run,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. I’ve seen teams fold on those circumstances. They made a heck of a run and took a five-point lead after being down. We just kept banging. (Our guys) didn’t let it affect them. They just came to compete.”
The Griz seriously threatened twice in this one. They trimmed a 14-point deficit to 52-46 by halftime. Memphis’ biggest run came after San Antonio took a 61-48 lead with 8:44 left in the third.
The Griz then closed the period on a 25-6 run. Memphis’ defensive pressure caused San Antonio to turn the ball over six times. The Spurs also missed eight straight shots over a span of five minutes.
“We’ve just got to be more disciplined in the first half of games,” Conley said. “We can’t come out with lackadaisical execution and turning the ball over. …We played very hard. We just let this one slip away.”
Turning point
The Griz went small when they fell behind by 13 points in the third. Hollins used a timeout with 9:46 left in the period to insert Josh Davis in place of Marreese Speights and O.J. Mayo over Quincy Pondexter. Davis and Mayo joined Conley, Gasol and Gay, and sparked a comeback with an active defense and hustle on the boards. The Griz turned a series of stops into scores. Memphis took its first lead, 66-63, since the first quarter after Mayo buried a 3-pointer with 2:11 left in the third.
“It was just energy and defense,” Davis said. “That turned it around for us. That’s what this team relies on.”
R&R (roster and rotation)
Guard Tony Allen sat out a second straight game with a sore left hip and knee. Quincy Pondexter started this time. Sam Young, who started in place of Allen Sunday at Boston, was healthy but didn’t play. A more significant development was Hollins use of rookie point guard Jeremy Pargo. Pargo entered the game and played alongside Conley in the second period after Mayo picked up two fouls. Pargo later saw time as Conley’s backup at point guard, signaling that Hollins might return an otherwise little-used Pargo to that role.
That’s what he said
“It was not perfect, but we got the win and that’s the most important thing. Wins on the road are hard to come by.” — Spurs guard Tony Parker after San Antonio improved to 4-8 away from AT&T Center where they have lost just once in 14 games.
The other guys
While Hollins lamented how long his key starters played, Popovich found ample rest for Parker (21 points, 7 assists, 3 steals) and Tim Duncan (19 points, 17 rebounds). Duncan took a seat with three minutes left in the third period and returned four minutes into the fourth. Parker sat down with two minutes remaining in the third and returned with Duncan in the final frame. How fresh was Duncan? He went 4 for 4 from the field with seven rebounds in the fourth. Duncan also came up with a big block on Gasol’s layup attempt that would have trimmed San Antonio’s lead to one with 24.9 seconds left.
“I have to do a better job of managing the minutes and trying to have confidence in some of the perimeter people to do their job,” Hollins said, “so that we cut down the minutes of our guys a little bit.”
Beyond the box score
Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace had the unpleasant duty of telling Davis that he had been waived following the game. NBA teams must guarantee contracts Friday but have until 5 p.m. today to cut players so that they clear waivers by Friday. Davis would have earned $854,000 if he remained until the end of the season. Wallace didn’t rule out bringing back Davis later on a 10-day contract. Davis appeared in 14 games. The move didn’t push the Grizzlies’ payroll below the league’s luxury-tax threshold.
Miscellany
Allen will partner with City Gear to distribute 100 jackets to area youth today at Goodwill Boys & Girls Club for an hour starting at 4:30 p.m. In addition to the jacket distribution, Allen will speak to a group of young men about setting goals, his personal challenges that he overcame and how he accomplished his goal of playing in the NBA.
Records
The Griz (12-13) began a season-long five-game home stand by falling below .500 for the first time since the team was 5-6 on Jan. 14. The Spurs (17-9) won their season-high fifth straight game to start a franchise-record nine-game rodeo road trip. The rodeo has rights to the Spurs’ arena for two weeks every February.
Grizzlies' rally falls short against San Antonio Spurs
* By Ronald Tillery
* Memphis Commercial Appeal
When Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins called for a time-out early in the third quarter his team was sputtering and the game appeared to be teetering out of control.
But that’s also when the Griz found a second gear.
Memphis used a surge in defensive energy and sharper offense to cut down a double-digit deficit. But the Grizzlies’ comeback attempt stalled Monday night in the final three minutes of an 89-84 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in FedExForum.
The Griz missed eight of their final nine shots, including a Rudy Gay 3-pointer that could have tied the score with 8.9 seconds left. In losing their third straight and for the seventh time in nine games, the Griz missed 20 of 25 field goals in the final period and shot 37 percent for the game.
“It was a close game,” Hollins said. “We just couldn’t get the stops and when we got the ball, we just couldn’t finish on the offensive end.”
Gay missed two layups and Gasol had a point-blank attempt blocked during the Grizzlies’ cold spell. The drought began after an O.J. Mayo’s short jump shot cut the Spurs’ lead to 82-81 with 3:15 left.
From there, a Mike Conley 3-pointer with 1:10 remaining served as the Grizzlies’ lone field goal the rest of the game. A visibly drained Hollins took the blame for his key players lacking energy at the end. Hollins vowed to trust his bench for longer stretches in order to give starters proper rest.
Gay, Gasol and Conley each logged 40 minutes or more.
“We were a step slow. But you want to win. You want to compete. You’re not thinking about being tired,” said Gay, who finished with 18 points but missed 11 of his final 13 shots after starting out 7 of 13 from the field.
Still, the Grizzlies’ last lead was 77-76 despite trailing by 13 points in the third. They were ahead by six when the fourth quarter began.
“They made a great run,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. I’ve seen teams fold on those circumstances. They made a heck of a run and took a five-point lead after being down. We just kept banging. (Our guys) didn’t let it affect them. They just came to compete.”
The Griz seriously threatened twice in this one. They trimmed a 14-point deficit to 52-46 by halftime. Memphis’ biggest run came after San Antonio took a 61-48 lead with 8:44 left in the third.
The Griz then closed the period on a 25-6 run. Memphis’ defensive pressure caused San Antonio to turn the ball over six times. The Spurs also missed eight straight shots over a span of five minutes.
“We’ve just got to be more disciplined in the first half of games,” Conley said. “We can’t come out with lackadaisical execution and turning the ball over. …We played very hard. We just let this one slip away.”
Turning point
The Griz went small when they fell behind by 13 points in the third. Hollins used a timeout with 9:46 left in the period to insert Josh Davis in place of Marreese Speights and O.J. Mayo over Quincy Pondexter. Davis and Mayo joined Conley, Gasol and Gay, and sparked a comeback with an active defense and hustle on the boards. The Griz turned a series of stops into scores. Memphis took its first lead, 66-63, since the first quarter after Mayo buried a 3-pointer with 2:11 left in the third.
“It was just energy and defense,” Davis said. “That turned it around for us. That’s what this team relies on.”
R&R (roster and rotation)
Guard Tony Allen sat out a second straight game with a sore left hip and knee. Quincy Pondexter started this time. Sam Young, who started in place of Allen Sunday at Boston, was healthy but didn’t play. A more significant development was Hollins use of rookie point guard Jeremy Pargo. Pargo entered the game and played alongside Conley in the second period after Mayo picked up two fouls. Pargo later saw time as Conley’s backup at point guard, signaling that Hollins might return an otherwise little-used Pargo to that role.
That’s what he said
“It was not perfect, but we got the win and that’s the most important thing. Wins on the road are hard to come by.” — Spurs guard Tony Parker after San Antonio improved to 4-8 away from AT&T Center where they have lost just once in 14 games.
The other guys
While Hollins lamented how long his key starters played, Popovich found ample rest for Parker (21 points, 7 assists, 3 steals) and Tim Duncan (19 points, 17 rebounds). Duncan took a seat with three minutes left in the third period and returned four minutes into the fourth. Parker sat down with two minutes remaining in the third and returned with Duncan in the final frame. How fresh was Duncan? He went 4 for 4 from the field with seven rebounds in the fourth. Duncan also came up with a big block on Gasol’s layup attempt that would have trimmed San Antonio’s lead to one with 24.9 seconds left.
“I have to do a better job of managing the minutes and trying to have confidence in some of the perimeter people to do their job,” Hollins said, “so that we cut down the minutes of our guys a little bit.”
Beyond the box score
Grizzlies general manager Chris Wallace had the unpleasant duty of telling Davis that he had been waived following the game. NBA teams must guarantee contracts Friday but have until 5 p.m. today to cut players so that they clear waivers by Friday. Davis would have earned $854,000 if he remained until the end of the season. Wallace didn’t rule out bringing back Davis later on a 10-day contract. Davis appeared in 14 games. The move didn’t push the Grizzlies’ payroll below the league’s luxury-tax threshold.
Miscellany
Allen will partner with City Gear to distribute 100 jackets to area youth today at Goodwill Boys & Girls Club for an hour starting at 4:30 p.m. In addition to the jacket distribution, Allen will speak to a group of young men about setting goals, his personal challenges that he overcame and how he accomplished his goal of playing in the NBA.
Records
The Griz (12-13) began a season-long five-game home stand by falling below .500 for the first time since the team was 5-6 on Jan. 14. The Spurs (17-9) won their season-high fifth straight game to start a franchise-record nine-game rodeo road trip. The rodeo has rights to the Spurs’ arena for two weeks every February.