Mike Conley does his best Willis Reed Impression
or
“FIRST TEAM ALL DEFENSE”

I think very few people would have called this game the way it went down. The Grizzlies seem to find a way to surprise every year. Last year they were missing Marc Gasol for the first chunk of the season so when they ripped off a 21-9 record after his return, the only people surprised when the Grizz took OKC the distance in the playoffs were people that had given up watching them early in the season. If one of those overtimes with the Thunder goes differently, I think the Grizz could have won it all last year – or at least pushed the Spurs a lot more than the Heat did. This year is a bit different. A fair number of people were picking the Grizzlies as their dark horse contender for the first half of the season, but they more or less limped into the playoffs. They took care of Portland well enough, but with the Blazers roster so depleted, it was hard to make much of that.

This game was the Grizz at their best. Mike Conley, playing with a freshly installed plate in his face, a blood red eye, and a face mask, inspired the team to victory. A lot of comparisons have been made between Mike Conley’s performance (Or, excuse me “One Eyed Charlie”) and Willis Reed of the legendary (and dear to me personally) 1970’s championship Knicks Squad. What people seem to forget is that for everything that Reed inspired by coming out to play injured – literally limping out the tunnel – the two baskets he scored to open the game were the only two shots he made in 27 minutes.

God did I just sound like I was diminishing the Willis Reed game? They beat Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Jerry freaking West! He’s the guy in the NBA logo! They actually just call him “The Logo”! That’s basically like beating Johnny Basketball in a game 7. Unreal. As I watched clips of it again just now it made me shiver, so disregard any equivocations above. To be clear, the Willis Reed game is the greatest game ever played by the greatest team ever put together. End of story.

Still though, (despite his inevitably inferior performance to Willis Reed) what Conley did was downright impressive. He hit his first 4 shots to lead all scorers with 22 points in just 27 minutes, shooting a blistering 75% from the floor including 3 for 6 from downtown. Not even a sorry-not-sorry swipe to the face mask from a frisky Draymond Green could slow him down. But for everything Mike did, it was a team effort. Tony Allen aka “The Grindfather” completely shut down Klay “37 points in a quarter” Thompson, who ended up going 6 for 15 and 1 of 6 from deep. The Warriors shot poorly for most of the game, but Curry was still able to get to the rim and keep points in the paint a close contest the entire game. It is delightful to watch Curry outmaneuver 7 footers on his way to the rim. Still Curry shot poorly from deep for the newly minted MVP going 2 of 11.

Zach Randolph also played a vintage game. The guy can barely jump but he is a knockdown shooter and defender in the post. Draymond looked great defending Gasol but had a quiet game offensively. You’d wonder if that is because defending 7 foot Spaniards is exhausting.

It never really felt like the Grizzlies were out of control in this game. There was a stretch where neither team hit a field goal for 2 and a half minutes. 2 and a half minutes! That must be a record drought for Golden State this season. You have to feel that even though the Grizz didn’t expand the lead in that time, it felt like winning. The Warriors are a team that regularly rattles off 12 points in less time than that.

One Eyed Charlie put the game away with a 3 point dagger in fading parts of the 4th, handing the Warriors their first loss at home since early January. 3 months ago! That is incredible. I believe the Knicks went 4-1000000 in that same span.

Thoughts on Game 3
The Warriors will come to play in the Grindhouse, and I expect them to open up an early lead. Whether they keep it and build it or not will largely be up to a rebound performance by Curry and Klay. Their offence devolved into too much isolation when they let the Grizzlies defence frustrate them. They need to move the ball more and keep the offence balanced, part of this will require Draymond to have a better game on O.

The Grizzlies went 1-1 on their home court this season with the Warriors, and their bench plays much, much better during home games. For the Grizzlies to stand a chance Mike Conley is going to have to have a repeat performance – which is asking a lot – and Marc Gasol is going to need to get into a better flow on offence.

I think the Warriors are likely to take this game as they’re the better team and are not likely to stay shell shocked after the game 2 loss. But the Grizz have a lot of players that thrive on being counted out, and the Grindhouse is a tough place to win.

Other Things I Noticed
– Tony Allen yelling “First Team All Defence”  over and over during the mic’d up segments was hilarious. The best sound bite of the year since Stan Van Gundy’s “we build a wall” from earlier in the regular season. Defence wins championships, and seemingly elicits great sound bites.
– Even when Tony Allen gets caught jumping on a pump fake, he manages to use his hand to obscure the vision of the shooter he’s flying by without fouling! That is crazy
– Conley’s special cup. What you think he’s got in there? HGH? Fruitopia?
– Another note on the cup, I do find it interesting how frequently commenters and writers seem to dance around the PED issue with basketball. Surely if players are using liquid nitrogen baths (Lebron) and hypobaric chambers (Pierce) some other stuff is going on behind closed doors.
– Another instance this game where I felt the ref’s called an 8 second violation (to get the ball into the front court) way too early, this time the commentators seemed to notice. Since when is this a point of emphasis?