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Zach Randolph (27 points) nailed a jumper with less than a second left to lift the Grizzlies to a stunning 104-103 road win over the Mavericks on Sunday. Mike Conley finished with 17 points and 10 assists. Marc Gasol also had a double-double. Game Info | Box Score
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Coach Hollins
How were you able to change momentum in the second half?
We changed the lineup, I thought we were out of whack. Our rhythm wasn’t there and we were playing at too fast of a pace. We were just out of control. In the second half I decided to start OJ and Shane and get into a pick and roll game. We were spacing the court pretty good with those two guys, then we had Darrell and Zach, and we had Marc and Zach, and Marc and Darrell. I decided to shorten the bench a little bit. Those guys did a heck of a job increasing the defense. Then we got some breakaways and fast breaks, and then we came back and executed in the pick and roll and we attacked and got stuff in that as well. It was just a real team effort. It takes a little bit of luck but it takes a lot of heart not quitting in order to at least give yourself a chance. We made big plays down the stretch. Shane got a couple of big loose balls. He got the one that was going out of bounds that was blocked and layed it back in. Then the last shot by Zach, what can you say about it? It was just a big time shot and we had tried to run the play before with somebody else and I noticed that Zach was the guy that was going to be open if we wanted to run it again the way they were playing it. I just stayed with the same play and just switched positions. Zach came off the screen and nobody came with him. He had the ball when Haywood finally came over to him. I think Haywood thought he was going to drive. Thank God he thought that. I hoped he thought that. He allowed Zach to get off his shot and when it went up in the air, I thought it was good.
On taking three of four from Dallas this year:
We’re trying to get wins, so every game we play is important. Every win we get is huge. It’s not whether it’s against the Mavs or not. I don’t know what significance that that has, but we’ve got to beat a lot of good teams down the stretch. We go home tomorrow and have Oklahoma City. After that we go to Miami, we come back home and have the Knicks. So every night is huge for us as we go down this sprint to the home stretch, trying to get in the playoffs.
Zach Randolph
On his game winning shot:
Coach drew up the play up for me to come out to the corner and Mike (Conley) got me the ball and I got a good rhythm bounce and got the shot off. If I wouldn’t have put the dribble down he probably would have blocked it. I had to put it on the floor and get some rhythm and get the ball up. That is definitely higher than I normally shoot it. I can hit a lot of shots like that, I felt comfortable when I released it so I felt real comfortable with the shot.
On the third quarter:
We just came out with a lot of energy. We got defensive stop, Mike (Conley) had a great game. He hit big shots. OJ (Mayo) played good and everybody else just took it in. That is what we have to do. Every game we play is like a playoff because we are trying to get somewhere, so we have to come back and try to win the game. There are now games that we can take off a night. It is not there. If we want to get to the next level we have to come out and win the games and play hard.
On his second half play:
It just loosened up for me. I was getting the ball. Even thought I didn’t get a lot of assists tonight, I was facilitating assists. If they doubled teamed I got the ball out so we could find open guys. It loosened up throughout the game. This game was important. The Mavericks are one of the best teams in the league. It is real important that we showed we can compete with Dallas and come here and compete, this is a hard building to win in. But, like you said they had a winning streak going and we beat it today. It is real important that we come out and focus on these game, understand what we are playing for and who we are playing against.