Grizzlies-Thunder Preview

By ALAN FERGUSON
Posted Nov 13 2012 4:27PM

The streaking Memphis Grizzlies are off to their best start in franchise history after a decisive win over one of the NBA's premier teams. They'll try to keep their streak intact by defeating another of the league's standout franchises.

While seeking a sixth consecutive win, the Grizzlies will try to end the Oklahoma City Thunder's five-game streak Wednesday night.

Memphis (5-1) takes the court a day after learning assistant general manager Kenny Williamson died of cancer. Williamson, who was 65, had just begun his sixth season with the Grizzlies.

Memphis was expected to get one of its toughest tests of the early season with a home game against defending champion Miami on Sunday, but the Grizzlies pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 104-86 victory. Their bench scored a season-high 41 points, led by fourth-year pro Wayne Ellington's career-best 25, and they limited the Heat to 38.0 percent shooting.

"It was a great team game. There wasn't much I could complain about. We played outstanding basketball," coach Lionel Hollins said.

Memphis is allowing averages of 89.8 points and 41.3 percent shooting over its win streak and will try to build on those efforts when it faces the Thunder (6-2) before returning home to take on New York on Friday.

"We've got a tough run ahead of us," Ellington said. "We got the first one, but we've got a few more to go."

If there's any edge for the Grizzlies on Wednesday, it might come from some potential fatigue for the home team. The Thunder will be playing their league-high ninth game this month and fifth in a week.

Oklahoma City, however, shook off its weariness Monday to pull out a 92-90 win in Detroit. The Thunder trailed by 11 points entering the final period, but Russell Westbrook scored 14 of his season-high 33 points and Kevin Durant added 11 of his 26.

"That's one of our trademarks that I'm so proud of. We always play hard until the end," coach Scott Brooks told the team's website. "There are a lot of games where we don't play well, but there are very few where we don't play hard. ... I thought our guys just did a good job of staying with it and playing for 48 minutes."

Oklahoma City played well enough to prevail in each of the first three meetings with the Grizzlies last season before a 94-88 home loss April 2. Memphis shot 39.1 percent in that game but had six players in double figures compared with four for the Thunder.

Westbrook was 23 of 67 (34.3 percent) over last season's four matchups, including a career-worst 0-for-13 performance in a 98-95 road win Dec. 28, but still averaged 18.5 points.

Durant is averaging 28.8 points over his last 21 meetings with the Grizzlies, including a seven-game Western Conference semifinal series in 2011, but is shooting 28.9 percent from 3-point range.

Marc Gasol led Memphis with averages of 18.3 points and 10.5 rebounds in last season's series. Zach Randolph, who missed two of those games due to a knee injury, has averaged 22.2 points and 10.7 boards in his past 32 matchups, including the postseason.

It hasn't been that long since each club's most recent six-game win streak. The Grizzlies finished 2011-12 with six consecutive wins, while the Thunder won six in a row March 21-April 1.

Grizzlies slug out 107-97 win over Thunder

By JEFF LATZKE
Posted Nov 15 2012 12:10AM

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Rudy Gay scored a season-high 28 points, Zach Randolph added 20 points and 11 rebounds before getting ejected along with Oklahoma City's Kendrick Perkins during a late-game altercation and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Thunder 107-97 on Wednesday night.

Marc Gasol chipped in 14 points as the Grizzlies continued the best start in franchise history by winning their sixth straight game. They took control by outscoring Oklahoma City by 21 in the second quarter, and never gave it up.

Kevin Durant scored a season-high 34 points and Russell Westbrook had 17 points and 13 assists as both Oklahoma City All-Stars logged more than 42 minutes for the second straight game while trying to lead a fourth-quarter comeback.

This time it fell short as the Thunder had their five-game winning streak snapped.

The Grizzlies went to their twin towers inside with Oklahoma City threatening to come back from a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter for the second straight game. Coach Lionel Hollins called for a timeout after Perkins' two-handed slam got the Thunder within 97-89 with 4:18 to play.

He sent his team back out with Gasol isolated against Perkins, and Gasol twisted his way in for a layup. After a missed jumper by Serge Ibaka at the other end, Gasol set up Randolph for a layup off a designed play.

After a pair of empty trips by both teams, referee Ken Mauer tossed both Perkins and Randolph after the two confronted each other between a pair of free throws by Westbrook. After the ejections, Randolph and Perkins tried to approach each other while being restrained by teammates before finally heading out tunnels at opposite ends of Chesapeake Energy Arena.

By then, Memphis had all but locked up the latest in a series of testy games between the two young Western Conference playoff contenders who got to know each other all too well during a seven-game series in the playoffs two seasons ago.

Ibaka finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and four blocks for the Thunder.

Quincy Pondexter contributed 13 points and Jerryd Bayless scored 12 as Memphis' bench outperformed the Thunder reserves. Both teams retooled their reserves during the offseason, with the Grizzlies letting O.J. Mayo leave in free agency and the Thunder trading Sixth Man of the Year James Harden to Houston.

Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks tightened his rotation in the second half, giving Durant and Westbrook no time off even after both had played 44 minutes in a come-from-behind win at Detroit on Monday night. In that game, the Thunder scored the first 13 points of the fourth quarter to immediately erase an 11-point deficit.

Not this time.

Pondexter and the second unit brought the Grizzlies back after they'd fallen behind 30-20 after the first quarter, getting held to just 32 percent from the field. Pondexter hit a pair of 3-poitners and a couple free throws during a 16-6 burst to start the second quarter, and Memphis kept rolling as the starters rotated back in.

Another Pondexter 3 put Memphis ahead 44-41 and the Grizzlies scored the final 10 points of the half, including a two-handed dunk by Gay off of Pondexter's alley-oop, to go up 56-45.

In all, the Thunder were outscored 36-15 in the second quarter while taking their turn making just 32 percent of their shots.

The deficit ballooned to 65-49 in the first 3 minutes of the second half, with Randolph converting putbacks on back-to-back possessions and Mike Conley following Gay's 3-pointer with a runner in the lane.

NOTES: Gasol also got a technical in the third quarter for taking the ball out of the net and raking it across Westbrook's face after a basket by Westbrook. ... The Grizzlies had just one turnover in the first half - when Bayless failed to connect with Gasol on a pass into the lane and Ibaka came away with it. ... Oklahoma City reserve Hasheem Thabeet spent a few moments at halftime chatting with ex-teammates and staff on the Memphis sideline. "I'm happy that he's still in the league and happy that he's doing well," Hollins said.

Notebook: Grizzlies 107, Thunder 97

Randy Renner, for NBA.com
Posted Thu Nov 15, 2012 12:10 AM - Updated Thu Nov 15, 2012 10:01 AM

THE FACTS: After a first quarter that was all Thunder, nothing went right for Oklahoma City and nothing went wrong for Memphis. Rudy Gay (28) and Zach Randolph (20) combined for 48 points to lead the Grizzles past the Thunder 107-97. Randolph also pulled down 11 rebounds.

Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant had his biggest scoring night of the season (34 points) but it wasn't enough to overcome poor shooting nights from Russell Westbrook (6-for-19) and Kevin Martin (1-for-4).

Late in the game Randolph and Thunder center Kendrick Perkins, who'd been talking trash to each other all night, were given technical fouls and ejected. Reports from the back hallway indicate the players may have gotten into another altercation near the locker rooms. The Oklahoman newspaper had a staffer in the area who reported yelling and sounds of something hitting doors and walls. A Thunder spokesman and Oklahoma City police officers in the area say nothing happened between the two.

Memphis had five players in double figures. Center Marc Gasol had 14, Quincy Pondexter and Jarryd Bayless came off the bench to score 13 and 12 points.

Westbrook scored 17 and had his biggest assist night of the season with 13. Serge Ibaka also had 17 points while pulling down eight rebounds and blocking four shots.

Martin came in averaging 17.1 points but he managed just four against Memphis, the entire Thunder bench couldn't even match Martin's average, scoring just 13 points.

QUOTABLE: "Perk's alright, there's a lot of bluffin' goin' on out on the court, but I don't bluff." -- Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph on the dustup with Kendrick Perkins

THE STAT: In the second half the Thunder outscored Memphis 52-51, but wild swings in the first half decided the game. A 10-point advantage for OKC in the first quarter was trumped by a 21-point advantage for the Grizzlies in the second.

QUOTABLE II: "The second quarter we started to get it going, that was huge for us and really meant the game because they outscored us by one in the second half." --Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins

TURNING POINT: The biggest turn came in the second quarter when Memphis erased a 10 point Oklahoma City lead by outscoring the Thunder 36-15. That gave the Grizzlies some cushion the rest of the contest. Another turn came late in the third quarter when the Thunder cut the lead down to six points. Gay scored on three consecutive trips down the floor from about 15-feet to push the margin back to double digits.

QUOTABLE II: "We had trouble overcoming their second quarter. They really picked up their intensity. They played better than us, they deserved to win. When you give a team an opportunity to get hot it's tough to turn 'em off." --Thunder head coach Scott Brooks

HOT: The Thunder shot 52.6 percent (10-for-19) and scored 30 points in the first quarter, the most points and the highest shooting percentage Memphis has allowed in any first quarter this season...In the second quarter it was the Grizzlies turn, Memphis shot 56.5 percent in the quarter and scored 36 points, the most points the Grizzlies have scored in a second quarter and the most points the Thunder have given up in any quarter this season...

NOT: Memphis opened the game shooting just 23.1 percent (3-for-13)...OKC shot just 31.6 percent (6-for-19) and scored 15 points in the second quarter, the fewest the Thunder have scored in any quarter this season...Westbrook was 1-for-8 in the first 24 minutes...

INSIDE THE ARENA: The 73rd consecutive sell-out crowd inside Chesapeake Energy Arena.

GOOD MOVE: Nice ball movement by the Thunder in the first quarter, seven assists on 10 made baskets. On one possession Durant caught a pass from Westbrook down low, the passed out to Perkins near the free throw line, who delivered a behind-the-back pass to Ibaka just inside the arc, and he hit the jumper.

BAD MOVE: Late in the third quarter Gasol took the ball out of the net following a Westbrook layup then bounced the ball off Westbrook's face. Gasol was hit with a technical foul and Westbrook nailed a 3-pointer on the next trip down.

NOTABLE: The Grizzlies' 6-1 start is the best in franchise history.

UP NEXT: For the Grizzlies, Friday vs. New York, Saturday @ Charlotte, Monday vs. Denver. For the Thunder, Friday @ New Orleans, Sunday vs. Golden State, Wednesday vs. LA Clippers.

• Grizzlies: --
• Thunder: Orton

• Grizzlies: Gasol, Pondexter, Randolph
• Thunder: Martin, Perkins

• Lead Changes: 2
• Times Tied: 8

• Arena: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, OK
• Officials: #41 Ken Mauer, #65 Sean Wright, #70 Brent Barnaky
• Attendance: 18203
• Duration: 2:22