The Lead: The Grizzlies ended a three-game losing streak — and got a couple of key scorers into a needed groove — with a commanding win over the Knicks, going up by as much as 25 points late in the third quarter before a combination of a defensive letup and a series of three-pointers from Knicks bench players made the score closer without ever putting the outcome in doubt.
The Grizzlies needed a game like this to rein in anxiety over the team’s 3-6 start, but got plenty of help from a Knick team whose 6-4 record coming into the game was probably misleading (lots of wins against bad teams) and whose top two scorers (Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire) had dud games for different reasons.
Man of the Match: After getting off to a poor start to the season and struggling terribly in Tuesday night’s game against the Thunder, the pressure was obviously on Rudy Gay, and he responded tonight, with a season-high 26 points on 11-16 shooting, heavy on fluid mid-range jumpers and alley-oop finishes (and one monster dunk in traffic). Gay’s best sequence came late in the third quarter, when he stuffed Knicks seven-footer Tyson Chandler at the rim then buried a straight-away three-pointer at the opposite end. But, if onlookers shouldn’t have gotten too low after Gay’s poor showing against the Thunder, they should be wary of getting too high based on his play against the Knicks. Gay is apparently dealing with a minor hip injury in addition to the other challenges associated with his return from a major shoulder. He needs to put together a string of strong performances to really get right. We’ll see if a trend develops when the Griz face the New Orleans Hornets Saturday night.