Grizzlies-Warriors Preview

By MATT BEARDMORE
Posted Jan 22 2012 1:45PM

The surging Memphis Grizzlies open a four-game western swing atop the Southwest Division.

Coach Lionel Hollins would be far more satisfied if they are still playing this well toward the end of the season.

The Grizzlies look to extend their longest winning streak in nearly six years to seven Monday night when they try to snap a three-game slide in Oakland against the Golden State Warriors.

Since losing three in a row earlier this month, Memphis (9-6) has won six straight to move percentage points ahead of San Antonio and Dallas for the division lead.

"From my perspective, I'm not even thinking of that," Hollins said Saturday following the franchise's second-most lopsided victory, a 128-95 win over Sacramento. "I just think about how we can make the playoffs and how we can get better than we were last year."

The Grizzlies, who lost in seven games to Oklahoma City in last season's Western Conference semifinals, have been outstanding on the defensive end during their best surge since a 7-0 run March 14-26, 2006. They're holding teams to an average of 88.5 points during their current streak.

Memphis, though, has allowed 115.0 per game while losing seven of nine in Oakland.

Despite shooting 51.2 percent in their lone visit last season Nov. 3, 2010, the Grizzlies lost 115-109 as Monta Ellis scored 17 of his 39 points in the final seven minutes.

While Golden State coach Mark Jackson would be happy with another big game from Ellis on Monday, he wants to see better ballhandling from his team. The Warriors (5-10), who've lost nine of 12, committed seven of their 18 turnovers in the fourth quarter of Friday's 94-91 home loss to Indiana.

Ellis had the ball stolen from him in the final seconds by George Hill, who converted a three-point play on the other end for the final margin. The NBA later issued a statement saying Hill intentionally kicked the ball and the Warriors should have regained possession.

"Clearly (Hill) kicked the ball," Jackson said, "but at the end of the day you don't blame the refs, you blame our team. We should have taken better care of the ball."

That could be a challenge for the backcourt duo of Ellis and Stephen Curry, who scored 12 points Friday after missing the previous eight games with a sprained right ankle.

The Grizzlies lead the league with 10.4 steals per game, with point guard Mike Conley averaging 2.5.

Conley is scoring 16.7 points per game with 8.2 assists since the team's last defeat. He had a season-high 22 points with six assists Saturday.

O.J. Mayo is 16 of 27 from 3-point range during the win streak, scoring 13.2 per game.

"We're going to head to the road and carry the momentum onto this four-game, seven-day road trip," Mayo said. "As long as we're winning, I'm all smiles."

Conley and Mayo combined for 32.7 points per game and each hit 5 of 11 from long range as Memphis won two of three against Golden State in 2010-11.

Grizzlies leading scorer Rudy Gay missed the last matchup - a 110-91 Memphis home victory March 30 - due to shoulder surgery, but he totaled 60 points in the previous two against the Warriors, including a season-best 35 in the road loss.

The Grizzlies, who've won at New Orleans and Detroit during their streak, last won three straight road games during a franchise-record 7-0 run Feb. 17-March 10, 2010.

Golden State has won once in its last five at home.

Grizzles rally from 20 down to beat Warriors 91-90

Posted Jan 24 2012 2:31AM

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) The Memphis Grizzlies built their longest winning streak in six seasons with a flurry of fast starts. They kept it going with one of the best finishes in franchise history.

Maybe now coach Lionel Hollins' team will be taken seriously.

Rudy Gay scored 23 points, three in the final 23 seconds, and the surging Grizzlies rallied from 20 points down in the second half to beat the Golden State Warriors 91-90 on Monday night.

"That was a big win for us," said Gay, who added nine rebounds and four assists. "We went through a lot to get it. We showed what we're made of and we showed our toughness."

Memphis (10-6) needed a 39-point fourth quarter to get it done.

That was no easy task for a team that managed only 35 points in the entire first half. The Grizzlies were also playing their third game in four nights, with a visit to Portland on Tuesday next up on the schedule.

Instead of collapsing after falling behind 63-43 with 3:23 left in the third quarter, Memphis rallied for what Gay agreed was the team's biggest victory of the season.

The win was the Grizzlies' seventh straight, matching their longest streak since a seven-game run in March 2006.

"We were dead in the water in the first half. We had no answers," Hollins said. "We don't quit, we fight. We did that and we were able to come back and get this win, which is a sweet win."

Mike Conley had 20 points and nine assists for the first-place Grizzlies, who remained a half-game ahead of San Antonio in the Southwest Division. Marc Gasol added 15 points and 11 rebounds while Tony Allen had 14 points and eight rebounds.

Monta Ellis had 20 points and five assists for Golden State, outscored 11-5 over the final 2:15.

"At the start of that fourth quarter, we could have knocked them out," Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. "They would have been ready to surrender. We didn't when we had a chance to. They got underneath our skin and we didn't respond."

The Grizzlies kicked off their four-game West Coast trip with a win despite getting outplayed for most of the night before breaking loose in the fourth quarter.

Allen had 10 points in the final period and played stellar defense against Ellis, Conley added nine points and Marreesse Speights scored all eight of his points to help fuel the comeback.

Conley came up big on both ends of the court. He forced a pair of late turnovers, then scored the go-ahead basket on a driving layup after stealing a pass from Stephen Curry.

Gay, who finished 10 of 21 from the floor, then made a 17-foot fadeaway and later added an insurance free throw.

"When you're missing easy layups and easy buckets ... you feel like maybe this just ain't meant to be," Conley said. "But that's where our fight came out in us and we said, `We have to keep attacking and keep being aggressive."'

Golden State, which has dropped its last three, missed a flurry of 3-pointers in the waning moments but pulled within 89-87 on Brandon Rush's long jumper. After O.J. Mayo sank a pair of free throws for Memphis, Ellis made a 3 with 0.6 seconds left for the final margin.

Curry finished with 18 points in his second game back from an ankle injury. David Lee added 13 points and 12 rebounds, and Rush scored 10 off the bench.

Golden State built a 17-point lead with just more than 4 minutes left in the first half before Memphis closed to 42-33 on a pair of free throws by Gay with 9.4 seconds left.

Gay and Gasol both had 12 points before halftime but Curry, who missed nearly three weeks with a recurring ankle injury, raced down the court and scored on a layup to make it 44-33 at the break.

The Warriors got a big boost from their bench in the second quarter.

Backup guard Nate Robinson had six assists and Klay Thompson added seven points while Ekpe Udoh and Dominic McGuire combined for seven points as part of a 10-2 run.

Memphis, which has played only one team with a record above .500 during its winning streak, looked tired playing its third game in four days.

The Grizzlies missed 10 of their first 13 shots, committed 11 turnovers in the first half and allowed the hustling Warriors to dish out 14 assists before intermission.

Ellis kept Golden State rolling with a pair of quick buckets in the third quarter. Curry added a 19-foot jumper and Lee scored on a dunk to give the Warriors a 55-39 advantage.

Rush, who had a 3-pointer during Golden State's run early in the second, added another dunk later to push the lead to 63-43.

Memphis pulled within 85-84 when Allen stole a pass from Curry and scored on a short jumper with 1:49 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Grizzlies went ahead for good on Conley's layup.

"We had every opportunity to win," Curry said. "We did everything we could to let it slip away."

Notes: Golden State's current six-game homestand is its longest of the shortened season. ... The home team had the won previous seven games in the series. ... The Warriors are 0-6 against teams from the Western Conference.

Notebook: Grizzlies 91, Warriors 90

By Geoff Lepper, for NBA.com
Posted Tuesday January 24, 2012 2:20AM

THE FACTS: Rudy Gay had a game-high 23 points, nine rebounds and four assists as the Memphis Grizzlies clawed back from a 20-point, second-half deficit to win their seventh consecutive game, beating the Golden State Warriors 91-90 Monday. Mike Conley had 20 points and nine assists for the Grizzlies, who outscored Golden State 39-22 in the fourth quarter, finishing on a 30-12 run over the final 7:11. Monta Ellis led Golden State with 20 points and Stephen Curry added 18, but they combined for 12 turnovers, six of them in the last period.

QUOTABLE: "It was a big win for us. We were dead in the water in the first half because we had no answers. They were making 3s, driving and doing everything. I just told the team at halftime: 'The way that we get back into the game is to attack the basket and touch them on defense. We just can't let them run around and do what they want to do. We don't play that way.' We don't quit, we fight."
-- Memphis coach Lionel Hollins.

THE STATS: Golden State's offense stagnated in the fourth quarter, settling for too many jump shots, but as coach Mark Jackson pointed out, that wasn't the real problem. "We gave up 39 fourth-quarter points," Jackson said. "We gave up 16 fast-break points in the game, all of them in the fourth quarter. Those are glaring issues. We gave up 10 second-chance points in the fourth quarter. We allowed them to take over this basketball game, and we should be embarrassed with this loss."

TURNING POINT: The Grizzlies had been all but left for dead after trailing 63-43 with 3:23 left in the third quarter, and the Warriors still held a 17-point advantage with 7:11 remaining. But when Conley drained a 3-pointer -- just the second of the evening for Memphis, which struggled mightily behind the arc at 2-for-13 -- to get within single digits at 78-69, the momentum had swept up fully behind the Grizzlies.

GOOD MOVE: Hollins said before the game that this incarnation of the Grizzlies was better equipped to go small against the Warriors, and his players proved him right. Instead of playing big men Marreese Speights and Marc Gasol together, Hollins used just one at a time, tag-team style, throughout the fourth quarter. A three-guard look of Conley, Tony Allen and O.J. Mayo carried the team down the stretch.

HOT: Conley had nine points and five assists in the fourth quarter, but that wasn't even the best performance from a Memphis guard in the period. Allen finished with 10 points, three rebounds and four steals, hounding Ellis at every opportunity and derailing the Warriors' offense entirely.

NOT: As good as Memphis was in the fourth quarter, they were brutally terrible in the first three quarters, shooting just 37.7 percent from the field and committing 16 turnovers.

QUOTABLE II: "We had every opportunity to win. We did everything we could to let it slip away."
-- Curry.

FANTASY SPOTLIGHT: Gay filled the stat sheet across the board, adding three steals, two blocks and (on the down side) four turnovers in 44 minutes.

ROOKIE WATCH: Warriors guard Klay Thompson looked the most assured he's been this season during a second-quarter stint with Golden State's second unit. Thompson had seven points (on 3-for-4 shooting) in that stretch.

NOTABLE: Gasol put up has 10th double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Warriors forward David Lee (13 points, 12 board) also had his 10th double-double this season. . . . The 20-point advantage was Golden State's biggest lead of the season. . . . This is Memphis' longest winning streak since a seven-gamer in March 2006. . . . The Grizzlies had more points in the fourth quarter (39) than in the first half (35). . . . The Grizzlies' 13-point total was the lowest allowed by the Warriors in a first quarter this season.

UP NEXT: For the Warriors, Wednesday vs. Portland, Friday vs. Oklahoma City, Tuesday vs. Sacramento. For the Grizzlies, Tuesday @ Portland, Thursday @ Clippers, Saturday @ Phoenix.

• Grizzlies: Arthur, Randolph
• Warriors: Brown, Wright

• Grizzlies: --
• Warriors: --

• Lead Changes: 2
• Times Tied: 1

• Arena: ORACLE Arena, Oakland, CA
• Officials: #19 James Capers, #11 Derrick Collins, #50 Olandis Poole
• Attendance: 17549
• Duration: 2:06