Playing in San Antonio, where the Spurs have only lost one game all season doesn’t help matters, and this will tell us just how poor Memphis’ form is. With Marc Gasol and Mike Conley forced by injuries to watch from the bench, the Grizzlies have scored only 13 and 11 points in the first quarter of the games in San Antonio.
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The San Antonio Spurs beat the Memphis Grizzlies 96-87 this Saturday morning.
The Grizzlies – who began losing players at an alarming rate with 30 games left in the regular season – refused to go quietly in their first home game in the series, which was played before a sell-out crowd of 18,119.
But the real story of this game was how tough Memphis played. Amir Johnson added 15 points and seven rebounds as the Celtics closed to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.
“He just keeps getting better and better”, Memphis coach Dave Joerger said of the repeat Defensive Player of the Year. It doesn’t matter either way, as a Game 5 would be back in San Antonio. The Spurs have been road favorites of at least five points a dozen times since 1991-92, posting a 7-5 ATS mark against those lofty away spreads. Zach Randolph is averaging 12.3 points and 9.3 rebounds while Lance Stephenson is averaging 8.7 points and 1.3 assists. Memphis actually took a lead into the 4th quarter, but the Spurs went on a patented 13-to-6 run that put the Grizzlies in a hole they can’t climb out of. “But we faced the team we knew we were gonna face”, guard Manu Ginobili said. The Grizzlies have been written off this entire series and came out with more fight in Game 3, but it was still not enough. Leonard played a game-high 42 minutes, 23 seconds.
The Griz entered Game 3 having led by only 25 seconds the entire series.
Rookie forward Jarell Martin is the latest to succumb to injury after missing Game 3 with a left foot ailment and isn’t expected to return anytime soon. Leonard had four steals and five of his team’s 12 blocks, while LaMarcus Aldridge posted his first double-double of the postseason.
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Except nobody told the Grizzlies they weren’t supposed to win. Whi finished with an incredible 32-7-2-4-5 line, just the fourth time in postseason history that that line has been posted, twice by Hakeem Olajuwon and once by Kevin Garnett.
