San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard goes to the basket against Memphis Grizzlies forward Matt Barnes in game four.
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Kawhi Leonard scored 21 points as he led the Spurs to a 116-95 win over the Grizzlies to sweep their first-round playoff series inside the FedEx Forum on Sunday afternoon.
In Memphis, San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge posted a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds, while veteran French point guard Tony Parker contributed 16 points for the Spurs. Indeed, after cycling through 28 players because of an injury epidemic and taking on the Spurs without injured stars Mike Conley and Marc Gasol, the championship round has not looked this far away for Memphis in a long time. Somehow, they were in the reckoning for a home advantage in the first round playoffs, but that disappeared as they lost 10 of their last 11 matches. Green and Mills expect the hard-nosed Grizzlies to play much tougher defensively than they did in Game 1.Meanwhile, the Spurs are looking to again cruise to a victory in Game 2 after a masterful performance in the season opener.
The game was delayed for about 20 minutes in the second quarter because of a power surge. Tim Duncan, who turns 40 on Monday, played just 13:32 in Game 3 and 19 minutes in Game 4. His minutes were increased during the first-round loss to the Spurs, mainly because of all the injuries suffered by Memphis leading up to the playoffs.
‘We shot 50 [times] in the paint, we just, unfortunately, only scored 22 of those’. There has been a lot of talk about the NBA’s announcement that James Harden should have been whistled for an offensive foul on his game-winner in Game 3. Lance Stephenson scored all 8 of his points in the first half as the Griz trailed by just a point at the half. The Spurs were up 25-23 at the time of the power outage.
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The top-seeded Warriors, after sitting Curry for games two and three with a badly sprained right ankle, grimaced when in the final seconds before half-time Curry slipped awkwardly on a wet spot on the court and sprained his right knee. He matched his postseason career high in scoring and set playoff career highs in 3-pointers made and attempted (6/9) and blocked shots (5). But if the end of the Grit-N-Grind era comes to a close this season, however that happens, then what an era it was. I think you’re going to get their best shot early and try to push the lead out, if they can, early. “Heart”, Randolph said. “Everybody is counting us out”. We have to come with the same attitude that we did [in Game 3].
