- LARRY KUZNIEWSKI
- Rudy Gay had a major bounce-back game against the Mavericks.
The Lead: About an hour before tipoff, Grizzlies assistant coach Dave Joerger turned to broadcasters Pete Pranica and Sean Tuohy at courtside and starting jumping up and down and clapping.
“Seven of nine!,” a smiling, near-punch-drunk Joerger exclaimed, “This is it right here! Day off tomorrow!”
Here’s betting Joerger was even more excited a few hours later, after the Grizzlies lead from buzzer to buzzer in beating the division rival Mavericks in a game with playoff implications and playoff atmosphere.
The Grizzlies finished the toughest stretch on their schedule — seven games in nine days, six against playoff contenders, five on the road — with an unlikely 5-2 record. And despite dramatic road wins against Finals favorites Oklahoma City and Miami, this last one was perhaps the most meaningful, strengthening the team’s hold on the #5 position in the West — and positioning them for a move toward #4 — by not only gaining back the game the team lost against Dallas earlier in the week, but more importantly securing a tiebreaker against them by taking the season series 2-1.
“It was huge,” Lionel Hollins said after the game. “We’re three up on them now in the loss column and with the tiebreaker it’s more like four. It’s going to be a tight race, but we have to keep winning.”
“If you had told us we’d be 5-2 in that stretch, we would have been happy about it,” Mike Conley said. “But we feel like we’re getting better. There’s been a lot of growth on this team in the past couple of weeks.”
The Grizzlies built a 20-point lead in the first quarter and while the Mavericks chipped away — drawing to within one when a three-pointer from Vince Carter made it 63-62 late in the third quarter — the Grizzlies never lost their lead, making plays down the stretch to keep a multi-possession lead until the shot-clock was off and the Mavericks were forced to foul.
Paired with Friday night’s 15-point win in Miami, the Grizzlies beat both teams from last year’s Finals in back-to-back games, without ever trailing. Now that’s a good weekend.
Making the weekend even better was that both wins featured strong performances from the team’s previously struggling stars — Zach Randolph and Rudy Gay, who had both played very poorly in the three-games-in-three-nights stretch earlier in the week.
Randolph followed his 14 and 14 off the bench against Miami with another double-double, a more efficient 15 and 11, with 4 assists.
And Gay’s breakout was even more dramatic. After having his least productive three-game stretch in more than three seasons, Gay lead the Grizzlies with 17 points against Miami, pairing the scoring with solid defense that only started with his three steals. Gay was even better Saturday against Dallas, scoring a game-high 25 points on only 15 field goal attempts, along with 5 rebounds and 3 assists.