The Lead: For more than three quarters Tuesday night it looked as if the Grizzlies were going to follow up one of their best wins of the season (94-88 over the Thunder Monday night) with one of their worst losses.
The Grizzlies have been terrific on the second night of back-to-back games this season, but coming off the intense road win in Oklahoma City they played down to their competition in this one. Facing a depleted Golden State team starting three rookies, in the middle of a five-game losing streak, and looking ahead to the lottery, the Grizzlies trailed 79-70 to start the fourth quarter. Thirty seconds into the final period, a Quincy Pondexter turnover and a Brandon Rush three-pointer pushed the Golden State lead to 82-70 and Lionel Hollins called an immediate timeout.
A minute later, Hollins finally found a combination of players ready to dig in and fight: O.J. Mayo, Gilbert Arenas, Tony Allen, Dante Cunningham, and Marc Gasol. That group went on a 22-6 run over the next seven minutes, spurred by heady, interchangeable backcourt play on both ends from the Mayo/Arenas duo, 9 points (on 4-4 shooting) from Cunningham, and an intense — and heretofore missing — blast of team defense.
A late, fatigue-inspired substitution of Mike Conley and Rudy Gay for Arenas/Mayo (Mayo re-entered after a rest) threatened to stall momentum, but Gay’s putback dunk with a minute-and-a-half to play partially redeemed what had been a poor performance to that point and essentially sealed the game.
It was something of a mini-me version of the crazy early-season game in Golden State, where the Grizzlies trailed big before going on a ferocious fourth-quarter run to win the game. And it was one the team really had to have, to keep from negating their good work the night before in Oklahoma City.
“They don’t have, really, something to play for, so they were just jacking up shots. Taking bad shots and making them,” Marc Gasol said afterward, bluntly but accurately. “They were playing without conscience, and we knew that coming in. But we finally got stops and rebounds and got the win.”