March 1, 2011
The Grizzlies avenged Sunday's loss to the Spurs, taking down the league's best team 109-93 at home. Mike Conley had 18 points and nine assists. Zach Randolph had 21 points and 10 rebounds as Memphis won for the 15th time in their last 18 home games. Game Recap | Box Score | Discuss
Postgame Notes
- Memphis earned its first win against San Antonio in three matchups this season… If the regular season ended tonight, the Spurs (No. 1 seed) and Grizzlies (No. 8) would meet in the first round of the NBA Playoffs… San Antonio won the first two games by six points (in overtime on Dec. 18) and seven points (Sunday), with both games played at the AT&T Center.
- Memphis won a season-high fifth consecutive home game, the club’s longest run at FedExForum since a franchise-record 11-game home winning streak from Dec. 18, 2009-Jan. 25, 2010.
- Memphis won its season-high tying fourth consecutive home game and earned its 12th victory in the last 14 games at FedExForum… The Grizzlies’ only two losses during that span came on Feb. 7 to the two-time defending NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers and on Jan. 17 to the Central Division-leading Chicago Bulls.
- The Grizzlies have won 13 of their last 15 games at FedExForum.
- Memphis is averaging 111.8 points in its last four home games.
- Missing Tony Parker (strained left soleus) for the first time this season, San Antonio used just its third different starting lineup this season.
- The Spurs fell to 21-9 on the road and were denied their 50th victory of the season, which would have marked the team’s NBA-record tying 12th consecutive season with at least 50 wins (Los Angeles Lakers, 1979-91).
- Stat of the Night:Memphis scored 30 points off 22 San Antonio turnovers, while the Spurs netted just 11 points off 12 Grizzlies miscues… The Grizzlies scored many of those points off turnovers in transition, outscoring the Spurs 27-11 on the fast break.
- Key Run of the Night: San Antonio trailed by 12 points (78-66) with 1:49 left in the third quarter before Memphis went on a 14-1 run, building the lead up to a game-high 25 points (92-67) with 8:57 left in the fourth.
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Player Notes
totaled 21 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and a season-high four steals to lead the Grizzlies.
They said...
Coach Hollins
On tonight’s game:
I just thought that we did to them what they did to us down there (in San Antonio on Sunday). We came out with great emotion and intensity. We were physical and aggressive. We kind of knocked them back on their heels. We kept attacking and kept attacking. They were scoring early on, but we were coming at them and finally we got control of what we were trying to do in our schemes and we kept widening the lead. They had a hard time defending us throughout the night. We made small adjustments on how they were double-teaming us, and it reminded me of the Orlando game (earlier in the year) when they had to get out of it (their scheme) when we were scoring easy. We forced 22 turnovers, which we got 30 points out of them. We had 11 steals and 16 offensive rebounds. We had 27 fast break points. We were blowing and going. I knew he (Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich) was going to rest his guys, he put all the small guys in. I knew he thought if he could get enough threes, they could get back in the game. They still struggled to stop us, and eventually it got down inside three minutes and the game was hopeless at that point. I thought it was a really good game for us. I thought we came out and just played real hard. The effort was unbelievable.
On creating turnovers:
That’s what we do. From the beginning we have been talking about getting deflections. We’re helping and recovering and then helping the guy who helped recover. Sometimes we’re all over the court and it looks like mayhem, but then we get a deflection and a steal. That’s what good teams do. You just have to keep making second and third efforts. When we play with that kind of energy, aggressiveness and physicality, we do a pretty good job. That’s been our calling card. We’re leading the league in forcing turnovers, and we’re leading the league in steals, so that’s basically what we’ve been doing all year long. It started at training camp.
On Darrell Arthur’s performance:
Once we got running on them, they just kind of bailed on him (Tim Duncan) and tried to go small to see what they could do. It was Darrell’s offense that really hurt them. I think that kind of led to Duncan going to the bench so they could maybe match up a little better. Darrell was hitting a lot of jump shots. He got 19 shots up tonight. He was 9-for-19 with eight rebounds. He was really good on the offensive glass. He had five offensive rebounds. He kept making shots and I think they needed to put a smaller guy in to try to match up there. Early on, we went to the post with him. He was just super in the game.
Zach Randolph
On the game:
It was definitely a playoff intensity game tonight. It was a team win. Everybody stepped it up and played great tonight, and that’s what we’ve got to do every game.
On the defense:
It was just a good team effort, especially on the defensive end. We were moving our feet. We were helping each other. We were talking. That’s what we have to do these last 20-something games. We just have to come out and be ready.
On the Spurs:
They had a good frontline, especially Tim (Duncan). He’s better, and he plays. That’s how the game goes. We’re a physical team too. We’re going to come out and be physical ourselves.